The best newcomers of the year

The day before the main award ceremony, the 17th Athens International Film Festival Opening Nights Conn-x, with the help of the Jury, honoured the best Greek newcomers of the previous year in a celebration of Greek cinema overall which concluded with the screening of the hotly anticipated film “Burning Heads”.

Syllas Tzoumerkas was named best director for “Homeland”, Efi Logginou won the award for best actress for “45 m2” by Stratos Tzitzis, while Haris Markou claimed the award for best actor for his performance in “Wasted Youth” by Argyris Papadimitropoulos.

Nominated for the three awards (Best Direction, Best Actor and Best Actress) were all directors and actors making their film debut in any movie that had at least one ticketed public screening in a film theatre or a film festival in any region in Greece from 1st September 2010 until the 31st August 2011.

This year’s Jury featured Tassos Boulmetis, Peggy Trikalioti, Orpheas Avgoustidis, Vardis Marinakis and Yannis Fotou.