It features international competition sections, and its program includes tributes to major filmmakers and national cinemas, as well as sidebar events such as masterclasses, exhibitions, live concerts and workshops.

[3] Hundreds of Greek and foreign guests, including major figures of the international film scene, have attended TIFF.

Leading filmmakers that have attended TIFF include Abbas Kiarostami, Nagisa Oshima, Nanni Moretti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Manoel de Oliveira, Ken Loach, Agnès Varda, Béla Tarr, Todd Solondz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Francis Ford Coppola, Wim Wenders, Alfonso Cuarón, Oliver Stone, Emir Kusturica, Fatih Akin, Werner Herzog, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Winterbottom, Aki Kaurismäki, Jim Jarmusch, Alexander Payne, Louie Psihoyos and John Waters.

Acclaimed actors, actresses and artists who visited TIFF either as guests or as member of the festival juries include Catherine Deneuve, Harvey Keitel, Faye Dunaway, Isabelle Huppert, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Sam Rockwell, Michael Ondaatje and Jean Marc Barr.

TIFF has held the following tributes to acclaimed auteurs, national cinemas and movements:[citation needed] 60th Festival – 2019 Gregory Markopoulos and Robert Beavers Albert Serra Joanna Hogg Dušan Makavejev 59th Festival – 2018 Jaime Rosales yyyoungcut Nanouk Leopold Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña Greek Queer Cinema Iordanis Ananiadis Before the Wave Breaks: the Road to New Romanian Cinema 58th Festival – 2017 Ruben Östlund Ildikó Enyedi Armand Gatti Ida Lupino From Words to Images: Balkan Literature and Cinema 57th Festival – 2016 Philippe Grandrieux Leonardo Favio Zeki Demirkubuz 56th Festival – 2015 Arnaud Desplechin Focus on New Austrian films Mircea Daneliuc 55th Festival – 2014 Ramin Bahrani Roy Andersson Kornél Mundruczó Želimir Žilnik 54th Festival – 2013 Contemporary Argentine Cinema Claire Simon Alain Guiraudie Balkan Survey 1994-2013 53rd Festival – 2012 Aki Kaurismäki Andreas Dresen Bahman Ghobadi Cristian Mungiu Theo Angelopoulos Costas Zapas Lior Shamriz 52nd Festival – 2011 Ole Christian Madsen Sara Driver Paolo Sorentino Ulrich Seidl Erden Kıral Éric Baudelaire Dror Heller Constantine Giannaris 51st Festival – 2010 Susanne Bier Dorota Kędzierzawska Mohamed Al-Daradji Werner Schröter Apichatpong Weerasethakul Croatian Animation: from the Zagreb School to the Present Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo Martin Putz 50th Festival – 2009 Werner Herzog Jeremy Thomas Philippines Rising Pinku eiga: beyond Pink Goran Paskaljević Ljubomir Šimunić 49th Festival – 2008 Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Takeshi Kitano Manos Zacharias Oliver Stone Willem Dafoe Diablo Cody Haris Zambarloukos Gustavo Santaolalla Richard Jobson Guillermo Navarro Division and Unity: Cinema in the Middle East Ousmane Sembène Terence Davies Contemporary Turkish Cinema Spotlight: Romanian Shorts Ivan Ladislav Galeta BB-Χ: Hungarian experimental film and the Béla Balázs Studio 48th Festival – 2007 John Sayles William Klein Nikos Nikolaidis Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kourkoulos Sotiris Moustakas Sokratis Kapsaskis Yorgos Skalenakis New Spanish Cinema Nae Caranfil Lee Chang-dong Yasmin Ahmad Mikio Naruse 47th Festival – 2006 Wim Wenders Stavros Tsiolis Dimos Theos Alexis Damianos Greek Screenwriters Spotlight Yannis Fafoutis Maria Plyta Brazilian Cinema New Cinema from China: Another View Nuri Bilge Ceylan Abderrahmane Sissako Jim McKay Jan Švankmajer 46th Festival – 2005 Hou Hsiao-hsien Patrice Chéreau Vittorio Storaro Michael Winterbottom Yorgos Panousopoulos Nico Papatakis Antoinetta Angelidis Park Chan-wook Focus on Mexican Cinema Focus on Danish Cinema Focus on Irish Cinema Kutluğ Ataman Seijun Suzuki Kim Jee-woon 45th Festival – 2004 Abbas Kiarostami Victor Erice Kiyoshi Kurosawa Katerina Thomadaki & Maria Klonari Kostas Sfikas Alexis Damianos Iakovos Kambanellis Manos Zacharias Isabelle Huppert Movies of Our Time: the Best of the New Argentine cinema Argentine 2004: Wind of Change Still Blowing New French Cinema New Russian Cinema Hirokazu Kore-eda Götz Spielmann Todd Verow Peter Greenaway 44th Festival – 2003 Wong Kar-wai Otar Iosseliani João César Monteiro Nikos Panayotopoulos Stars of the Steppe Michael Snow Shinya Tsukamoto 43rd Festival – 2002 Μarco Bellocchio Béla Tarr Bob Rafelson Pantelis Voulgaris Giannis Dalianidis Asian Vision Jaime Humberto Hermosillo Hong Sang-Soo Shirin Neshat Aurelio Grimaldi 42ο Festival – 2001 John Boorman Dinos Dimopoulos Stavros Tornes Argentinian Cinema: a Time of Changes German Cinema 2000 French Cinema 2000 US Independents 3x3: Stanley Kwan, Rakhshān Banietemad, Jan Hřebejk 41st Festival – 2000 Jerzy Skolimowski Theodoros Angelopoulos Harvey Keitel New Russian Cinema: after Perestroika Dinos Katsouridis New French Cinema New Austrian Cinema Agnès Varda Paulo Branco 40th Festival – 1999 Pedro Almodóvar Amos Gitai Tonino Guerra Man Ray Portuguese Cinema: the Portuguese Spring Vassilis Georgiadis US Independents New German Cinema New French Cinema Alison Anders 39ο Festival – 1998 Ken Loach Jean-Daniel Pollet Akira Kurosawa Asian Vision 3x3: Marcel Grier, François Ozon, Ventura Pons US Independents New French Cinema 38ο Festival – 1997 Claude Chabrol Arturo Ripstein Manoel De Oliveira Irene Papas Takis Kanellopoulos Tsai Ming-liang Aleksandr Sokurov 3x3: Tony Gatlif, Errol Morris, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson Views of the New French Cinema 37ο Festival – 1996 Bernardo Bertolucci Grigoris Grigoriou Lucian Pintilie 3x3: Jan Svěrák, Sergei Bodrov, Carlo Mazzacurati Peter Greenaway American Independents 36th Festival – 1995 Krzysztof Kieślowski Nanni Moretti Frida Liapa Michael Cacoyannis Treasures of Iranian Cinema Mohsen Makhmalbaf American Independents Cine Documenta Sergei Eisenstein 35th Festival – 1994 Nagisa Oshima Yorgos Tzavelas Tonia Marketaki Russian Cinema Charles Burnett Michael Haneke Rainer Werner Fassbinder Sergei Parajanov 34th Festival – 1993 David Cronenberg Hal Hartley Jules Dassin Alexis Damianos Pavlos Zannas The Thessaloniki International Film Festival comprises the following sections: TIFF’s line-up further includes Out-of-Competition films, special screenings and “Carte Blanche” special programs.

Crossroads aims to support the producers of feature-length film projects that are linked to Central Europe, the Mediterranean or Balkan countries.

Agora Works in Progress This industry activity gives the opportunity to selected sales agents, distributors, and festival programmers from all over the world to be the first to discover feature films from the Mediterranean and Balkan countries, in the stage just before completion.

A day full of discussions where people who wish to establish themselves in the industry can exchange ideas, methods, and approaches about the development of the audiovisual sector.

Meet the Future A new initiative of the Thessaloniki IFF and the Agora that focuses on the younger generation of Greek filmmakers.