The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival will have its curtain call on Sunday March 16th with the screening of the film Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025) by Shoshannah Stern that unravels the story of Marlee Matlin, the first ever deaf recipient of an Academy Award for acting.

In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.

The film explores Matlin’s life as a groundbreaking performer, whose meteoric and tumultuous rise to fame started in 1987 when she became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her role in Children of a Lesser God.

At the age of 21, Matlin was thrust into the national spotlight, becoming for many Americans the first Deaf person they saw on TV and overnight becoming the de-facto representative of the Deaf community.

The film boasts never-before-seen home video filmed over the course of Matlin’s 37-year career by her longtime interpreter and producing partner Jack Jason – including footage of Matlin behind the scenes on the sets of some of her most iconic roles, including Children of a Lesser God, The West Wing and Seinfeld.

For the first time in her own language, Matlin reflects on her relationship with actor William Hurt, her place in the Deaf community, her fight for roles and accessibility in Hollywood and what it means to be ”the first.”

Admission to the closing screening will be carried out upon presentation of an invitation, whereas a limited number of tickets will also be issued. Once the screening is completed, we rush to Warehouse C, ready to be carried away by a unique live performance delivered by METAMAN.

Synthesizers take center stage in his live shows, covering an exciting range from the hypnotizing trip hop all the way to acid rave. Guest star: Alexandra Epitheti. DJ set: Olia. Free admission for the public.

27th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival will be held from Thursday 6th to Sunday 16th March 2025 both in physical spaces and online. A total of 261 documentaries will be screened as part of the 27th TiDF, among which an impressive number of 72 world, 40 international and 11 European premieres.

The Festival will take place in its time-honored home ground, the movie theaters Olympion and Pavlos Zannas at the Olympion complex, the movie theaters Frida Liappa, Tonia Marketaki, John Cassavetes and Stavros Tornes at the Port of Thessaloniki, as well as Makedonikon theater. Moreover, the audience will have the chance to watch movies online, through the Festival’s digital platform.

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival assigned choreographer Andi Xhuma to direct the spots of its 27th edition, exploring the affinities between cinema and the performative arts.

Iconic landmarks of Thessaloniki, as well as a series of beloved hubs, buildings and spots that beat to the Festival’s pulse, take center stage at the 27th TiDF’s spots. We embark on a wandering across the city, starting from the Heptapyrgion fortress and reaching all the way to the heart of the urban metropolis, at the Port’s Pier A and the historical home ground of the Festival, the Olympion complex.

Amidst the anonymity and the rituality of the dark theater, but also out in the open, in the bustling and uninterrupted energy of the streets and the port, the aery and pulsating choreography by Andi Xhuma can be interpreted as an ode to personal expression, as a call to liberation from any form of restraints, but also as a celebratory reassertion of the ancestral ties between the people and their homeland.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Director: Σοσάνα Στερν / Shoshannah Stern
Stars: Randa Haines, Sian Heder, Aaron Sorkin, Marlee Matlin
Release Year: 2025
Countries of Origin: United States
Duration: 96 minutes