21 Mar 2025 Winners Announced for the ‘IEFTA Best Doc In Development Award’ at TIDF AGORA
Join us in congratulating Director, Alexa Bakony and Producers Veronika Gál, and Gábor Osváth, the winners of the €10,000 prize for the IEFTA Doc in Development Award at TIDF26 AGORA‘s “Thessaloniki Pitching Forum” held at the 2025 edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Plenty of important projects were pitched at this year’s Agora at the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, with Development Coordinator Saam Darius and IEFTA Associate Gary Springer attending the event.
The inaugural award worth €10,000 is funded by the IEFTA Foundation which actively supports documentary films throughout all production stages.
Highways of Hope
“When I drive, I feel powerful”. Gulnaz is a cheerful, open-minded Muslim girl from India. Having had only her father to rely on for years, she developed a close bond with him. But she’s flown far from home and nowadays she’s transporting goods in Western Europe. Compared to her upbringing in India, where possibilities are much more limited for women, this job offers an opportunity to have a decent salary, to plan her future education as a photographer, to make her father proud, and to become her own person through this life-changing experience.
Alexa Bakony (Hungary)
DIRECTOR
Alexa Bakony is a Sundance DFP Fellow and Berlinale Talents Alumna director from Budapest, Hungary. Her debut documentary, “Colors of Tobi,” won HBO Europe’s Development Award in 2020, the Mermaid Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2021, the Premio Maguey at the Guadalajara Film Festival in 2021, and the Hungarian Film Critics Award in 2022. Her current documentary Highways of Hope is supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures and also won the ‘Best Doc in Progress Award’ from IETFA at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival in 2025.
Veronika Gál (Hungary)
PRODUCER
Veronika Gál is an English & Film graduate of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. After her studies, she immersed herself in filmmaking. She spent a four-year collaboration with Kornél Mundruczó, gaining invaluable experience in film development. She also enrolled in two separate producing programmes on live action and animation producing in 2022. Veronika divides her time between working as a sustainability consultant, a script translator and consultant, and freelance producer.
