This year's best newcomers and short film directors honoured

In a brief but particularly delightful ceremony, the Athens International Film Festival gave out the awards for the Greek Short Stories In Competition section, as well as those for the best newcomers of the past year.

Ektoras Lygizos ("Boy Eating the Bird's Food"), Yannis Papadopoulos ("Boy Eating the Bird's Food") and Maria Georgiadou ("All Cats Are Brilliant") won the Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. All three said little when onstage, apart from a heartfelt thank you - Lygizos set the example which was mimicked by almost everyone that followed, amusing the audience.

Dimitris Piatas (president, actor), Maria Drandaki (producer), Maria Katsounaki (journalist), Fivos Delivorias (musician) and Dimitris Koutsiampasakos (director) were on the Jury.

The awards for the Greek short film competition section had been announced earlier in the day, but the ceremony gave the winners the chance to publicly thank all those who made their work possible. Continuing the evening's theme of short speeches, the honorees were brief in their thank-you's and had as their common point the gratitude towards all their collaborators who worked tirelessly and, in some cases, without proper pay.

The awards of the International Competition Section and the Music & Film In Competition Section are announced on Sunday, 29th.

More photos from the evening here.