Kekatos, Gousis and Doganis are the big winners of the Greek film awards at the 25th Athens International Film Festival!

The awards ceremony took place at Danaos cinema, where the Festival’s  Artistic Director, Mr Loukas Katsikas, and Selection Coordinator of the Greek Short Stories in Competition section, Mr Panos Gkenas, welcomed the juries and participants and made way for the true protagonists of the evening: the winners!

A surprise was awaiting the audience, as prior to the commencement of the ceremony Angelos Frantzis, Karyofyllia Karabeti and Katia Goulioni took to the stage to present exclusive excerpts of the film “Eftyhia”, the exciting story of the Greek pioneering lyricist Eftyhia Papagiannopoulou responsible for some of the greatest and timeless songs in Greek folk music. The film will be released in Greek cinemas on the 19th December by Tanweer.

NEWCOMER ACTORS AND DIRECTORS AWARDS

Basile Doganis for “ Meltem” and actors Anthi Efstratiadou (“Magic Skin“) and Konstantinos Gogoulos (“Supervisor”) were chosen by the jury for the Best Newcomers Actors and Directors Awards. The jury was composed of:   

Panagiotis Fafoutis - director, President of the Jury
Aliki Danezi Knutsen, director
Ilias Magklinis, author/journalist
Mariza Rizou, songwriter
Dimitris Lalos, director / actor

The Awards in detail

The Best Newcomer Male Actor Award went to Konstantinos Gogoulos for the film “Supervisor” by Nikos Labôt.

According to the jury’s reasoning “the actor is awarded for his pivotal role in supporting the protagonist”. Konstantinos Gogoulos accepted  the award and thanked the jury.

The Best Newcomer Female Actor Award went to Anthi Efstratiadou for “Magic Skin” by Konstantinos Samaras.

Anthi Efstratiadou thanked the producers for “going out on a limb on a risky film”.

The Best Newcomer Director Award went to Basile Doganis for the film “Meltem”.

The director thanked the jury and added “though the film is of French-Greek production, I’d like to thank the all-Greek crew. Every director wonders about the significance of their work. In my case there is a story that proves its significance. The amateur Syrian-Palestinian protagonist in the film managed to get French citizenship, for him and his family, thanks to this film, something which I am envious of as it took me 30 years to get mine”.

GREEK SHORT STORIES IN COMPETITION AWARDS

An integral part of the festival during recent years, the Greek Short Stories competition section features the most exciting and creatively restless offerings of Greek cinema. More than 400 films have been screened so far as part of this competition section.

This year's submissions exceeded the record number of 311, which shows that Greek cinema is alive and kicking but also that young Greek creators trust the Festival as a platform through which to present their work.

The jury of this competition section was composed of:

Amanda Livanou, producer and President of the Jury
Christos Voupouras, director
Dimitris Vrachnos, radio producer
Lina Nikolakopoulou, lyricist
Marisha Triantafyllidou, actress

The Awards in detail

Jury’s Special Mention : “Ellinikon” by Konstantinos Prepis

The jury justified this award based on “the intention, the achievement and the fulfilment of all this film set out to do“. 

Jury’s Special Mention : “Heatwave” by Fokion Xenos

The jury based this award on “the humorous portrayal of Greek summer”, while the director accepted the award by saying “this award is a great honour to Greek animation”.

The award for Best Performance by Female Actor was presented to: Artemis Tzortzoglou & Anna Papageorgiou for “Hyped” by Alkis Papastathopoulos

The award for Best Performance by Male Actor was presented to: Nikos Georgakis for “All the Fires the Fire” by Efthimis Kosemund Sanidis

While analysing the reasoning behind the jury’s selection for this award, Christos Voupouras mentioned that they came across a “great” deal of Greek films through which an element of “contemporary Greek neo-realism was detected”. Nikos Georgakis thanked the jury.

The award for Best Screenplay was presented to: Nicolas Kolovos for “Index”

The award was accepted by the film’s producer Maria Drandaki

The award for Best Director was presented to: Konstantinos Antonopoulos for “Postcards from the End of the World”

The jury awarded this film for being a “redemptive film, elegant and well made”. The award was generously accepted by the director.

The award for Runner-up Best Film went to: “The Arm Wrestler” by Giorgos Gousis

The jury was surprised by the “portrayal of Greek reality”. The award was accepted by the director of the film, Giorgos Gousis, who went on to the stage along with Giorgos Koutsaliaris whom he referred to as “co-director”. 

The award for Best Film went to: “The Distance Between Us and the Sky” by  Vasilis Kekatos

Vasilis Kekatos thanked “the jury, the festival, his actors and producers” and joked about his choice of attire for the evening while revealing that “last year’s monetary award was the first source of funding for this year’s film”.

The award for Best Film is accompanied by a € 2,000 cash prize while the award for Runner-up Best Film is accompanied by a € 1,000 cash prize, kindly sponsored by the Greek Film Center.

The ceremony ended with the nationwide premiere of the film “Olla” by Ariane Labed and “Electric Swan” by Konstantina Kotzamani, who both addressed the audience along with “Olla” protagonist Romanna Lobach.