Thessaloniki, Greece — Michal Marczak's documentary Closure has claimed the top honor at the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, earning the Golden Alexander in the International Competition. The film, which premiered in the World Cinema Documentary competition at Sundance earlier this year, chronicles a father's anguished search for his missing teenage son along the banks of Warsaw's Vistula River. The festival, held in the port city along the Aegean Sea, concluded its awards ceremony on a pier overlooking the water, where Marczak accepted the prestigious prize.
According to festival organizers, Closure stood out for its raw emotional depth, following Daniel, a man whose son Chris was last captured on a rotating CCTV camera on a bridge over the Vistula. The footage shows the 17-year-old standing alone before the camera pans away, and upon returning, he has vanished. The documentary raises haunting questions about whether Chris took his own life, as Daniel spends months scouring the river for any trace of his son.
Marczak, a Polish director known for his intimate storytelling, attended the ceremony in person. Speaking to reporters afterward, he expressed profound gratitude for the recognition. “I’m very moved, super moved,” Marczak said. He credited the festival with playing a pivotal role in the film's development, noting that the project was first presented there last year at the Forum section. “And at the Forum we met Rémi Grellety, one of our producers. So, it really helped to shape the project and get it done. And we met the folks from Sundance here as well, which gave us a big boost of confidence as well as all the people from Thessaloniki to try to get it done for this year.”
The rapid production timeline underscores the urgency behind Closure. Marczak explained that the team completed the film in just 14 months, from initial meetings with the protagonist to final edit. “We did this movie in 14 months from the moment we met the protagonist and we shot for a year,” he told Deadline. “We were super-fast editing as we went, just really trying to stretch our resources and to get this movie out.” This efficiency allowed the documentary to premiere at Sundance in January 2026 and now head to the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival in Poland, where it will serve as the opening night film.
Beyond the accolades, Closure has resonated deeply with audiences grappling with themes of loss and mental health. Marczak shared a particularly moving response from a viewer who credited the film with pulling them back from the brink. “When you see people that are genuinely moved by the movie, that’s beautiful,” he said. “And I received this one voice message from a person and he said, ‘Listen, I’ve had some bad days. I’ve had really deep, dark thoughts. But after I saw your movie, I know that I’m never, ever going to commit suicide.’ And I cried when I heard that message.”
While Closure took the spotlight with the Golden Alexander, another film dominated the awards with an impressive sweep. Birds of War, directed by the married couple Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, secured four prizes, including the Silver Alexander in the International Competition. The documentary draws from vast archives of footage shot by Habak during Syria's protracted civil war, offering a visceral firsthand account of the conflict that ravaged the country for over a decade.
Habab, who hails from Aleppo, captured terabytes of material amid the siege of his hometown and other brutal episodes. The war, which displaced millions and sparked a major refugee crisis across Europe, officially ended more than a year ago when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow amid a popular uprising. Boulos and Habak's film weaves this personal archive into a broader narrative of survival and devastation, highlighting the human cost of endless conflict.
Habak, speaking at the awards ceremony, emphasized the film's timeliness amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. “It is really important for me,” he told reporters, “especially at this moment with another war going on in our region. It’s a circle of life, it’s a circle of war. That is how our region has been [impacted] for the past more than 50 years. And that is really scary because when a war ends, you’re going to feel and think, ‘Now we’re going to live in peace.’ And [then] another war starts after a few years. It’s not fair for the people. The people who pay this price, it’s the civilians.”
The recent flare-up in the region, which began two weeks ago with attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran, has heightened fears of broader involvement. Israel has intensified bombardments in Lebanon, targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, while Iran has launched strikes on Gulf states and its proxies have hit U.S. facilities in Iraq. Habak expressed cautious hope for Syria's fragile post-war recovery. “The new government, [in Syria], they are trying to stay out of the new war that is happening in the Middle East, but I don’t know if they’re going to be successful,” he said. “Fifteen years of war, Assad destroyed our country, destroyed our community, destroyed our society. He actually created a huge gap between the community and society. And people are trying to rebuild that at the moment. If we go back to another war, we’re going to be more destroyed. I hope just to live in peace.”
He added a personal dimension to the film's impact: “The film has a lot of my archive, which is the archive I have shot in Aleppo, under the siege of Aleppo. And showing a part of me, a part of what I lived through, a part of what I was doing when I was working there.” This intimate perspective has drawn praise from critics, who note how Birds of War humanizes the statistics of displacement and destruction from Syria's civil war, which began in 2011 as pro-democracy protests and escalated into a multi-factional struggle.
The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, now in its 28th edition, has long been a hub for unflinching nonfiction storytelling, attracting filmmakers from around the world to its seaside venues. This year's event unfolded against a backdrop of global unrest, with documentaries addressing personal tragedies and geopolitical upheavals. Organizers highlighted the festival's autonomy in a statement contrasting it with recent government interference at the Berlinale, affirming, “We Are Autonomous. We Have Free Reign.”
Elsewhere at the festival, other notable mentions included Juliette Binoche's directorial debut In-I In Motion, which drew inspiration from Robert Redford and screened alongside selections at CPH:DOX. The awards underscore Thessaloniki's role in nurturing emerging voices in documentary cinema, particularly those tackling mental health, war, and resilience.
As Closure prepares for its Polish premiere, Marczak reflected on the film's broader mission to spark conversations about suicide prevention. In Poland, where youth mental health challenges have risen in recent years, the documentary arrives at a critical juncture. Advocacy groups have noted an uptick in support hotlines following similar films, though official statistics on missing persons cases remain incomplete.
For Habak and Boulos, the multiple awards for Birds of War signal growing international interest in Syria's untold stories. With the country in a tentative rebuilding phase under a new interim government, the film could amplify calls for humanitarian aid and diplomatic efforts to shield civilians from regional spillover. Experts monitoring the Middle East conflict warn that Syria's porous borders and lingering militias make neutrality precarious, potentially drawing it into the Iran-Israel escalations.
The festival's close leaves filmmakers optimistic about documentary's power to bridge divides. As Marczak put it, the Thessaloniki experience not only validated their work but propelled it forward. With more awards announcements expected in the coming days, the event reaffirms Greece's port city as a vital stop on the global film circuit, fostering stories that demand attention amid a turbulent world.