The festival's top honors went to short film "II"!
"II" by Efthimis Kosemund Sanidis was the big winner of the Greek Shorts Competition Section at the 20th Athens International Film Festival, taking home the Best Short Film Award, accompanied by a cash prize of 2.000 Euros.
«ΙΙ» teaser
The film also won the Best Director award for "perfectly orchestrating the landscape, the people and the narrative space, taking advantage of every artistic and technical medium available to structure an open-ended, poetic story that's experiential, direct, specific and palpable, all at once".
«Work Day»
The second Best Short Film Award went to "Work Day" by Vangelis Karamarinos and Zacharias Mavroeidis, a film "that turns genre conventions on their head, allowing the camera to capture an internal undercurrent that goes above and beyond action". The third Best Short Film Award went to "A Portrait" by Aristotelis Marangos, "a highly personal film, which proves that great cinema needs be nothing more than a couple of good lines.".
«A Portrait»
"Maasai" by Harry Lagoussis won Best Script, prompting the jury to comment "the film was fortunate enough to feature three brilliant performances and despite being based on a realistic concept, it did not hesitate to go beyond what was expected, adding depth with three-dimensional characters and complex emotions".
«Maasai»
The Jury, consisting of Giorgos Karnavas (producer, president), Penny Panayotopoulou (filmmaker), Kora Karvouni (actress), Yorgos Krassakopoulos (film critic) and Georgis Grigorakis (filmmaker), also awarded a Special Mention to "Prayer" by Thanasis Neofotistos for "successfully handling a delicate subject with a down-to-earth attitude and plenty of maturity and for directing his actors with a steady hand". The second Special Mention went to "The Undesirables" by Fivos Kontogiannis, "a solid effort that manages to build a clear-cut story through an elliptical narrative, glances, atmosphere and music."
For the first time in the Greek Shorts Competition, Opening Nights awarded a Cinematography Award to "Fawns" by Thansis Tsibinis, shot by Konstantinos Koukoulios. The competition was judged by the Greek Society of Cinematographers (gsc.com.gr).
