For the third year, The SMART7 Competition announced its winner during the closing gala of the 66th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, on November 9th. The prize was awarded to the Portuguese director of Capeverdean origins Denise Fernandes for her feature debut Hanami. The SMART7 competition celebrates new European cinema and was initiated in 2023 by a group of film festivals across the continent. Seven films selected by curators from each film event were screened along the festival season and the winner was chosen by an international youth jury. The prize of the program was €5,000.
Hanami follows a young girl living in a small community on a volcanic isle, where reality blends with fiction. The jury reasoned:
We have awarded Hanami for its originality, in terms of its decolonial point of view. With a magical realist sensibility, the director portrays the life of a girl who contemplates Cabo Verde’s past, present and future in a very unique way, exploring the history of a community that has been instrumentalized by an imperialistic force for centuries.
The members of the international youth jury who awarded the film were Maria Mitulescu (Romania), Iasonas Friliggos (Greece), Vakarė Saulėnaitė (Lithuania), Bernardo Vaz Almeida (Portugal), Milagros Valerio (Spain), Katarzyna Nowicka (Poland), Fríða Möller (Iceland).
Open Call: SMART7 Launches Its Third Workshop Program for Festival Organisers
SMART7 is opening applications for its third edition of workshops dedicated to festival organisers, with a special focus this year on sustainable human resources, well-being, and mental health. The two-day event will be held in Madrid, Spain, on December 2–3, and is open to all professionals working in film festivals.
The program was launched in 2023 in Poland, with workshops coordinated by New Horizons, IndieLisboa, Thessaloniki IFF, and Transilvania IFF, focusing on promotion, sales, sponsorship, and fundraising. Its core mission is to strengthen peer-to-peer learning and make the most of each member festival’s expertise.
The 2025 edition is co-organised by FILMADRID, with contributions from all members of the network.
On December 2, speakers from New Horizons, Transilvania, and Vilnius will address Volunteers and Sustainable Human Resources, sharing best practices and insights into preparing for future challenges.
On December 3, Thessaloniki IFF and FILMADRID will lead a session on Inclusion, Well-being, and Mental Health, presenting the strategies and measures they have implemented over time. The discussion will be open to all interested guest festivals beyond the SMART7 network.
SMART7 welcomes external international film festivals to join these closed-door, hands-on sessions, designed to encourage meaningful exchange among key players in the global festival landscape.
How to participate
Attendance is limited to representatives from 10 external festivals. Those interested can contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by November 21st. Registration is free, but participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation.
SMART7 is a network initiated by seven film festivals that connects similar goals and visions from different European cultural and geopolitical areas. The main purpose of this alliance is not only to respond to current needs, but also to define common trends for future growth and development of industry and festival culture. SMART7 has members from seven different countries: Poland (New Horizons IFF), Iceland (Reykjavik IFF), Portugal (IndieLisboa IFF), Romania (Transilvania IFF), Spain (FILMADRID IFF), Greece (Thessaloniki IFF) and Lithuania (Vilnius IFF Kino Pavasaris).
SMART7 is a network co-funded by the Creative Europe Media.
