The poster of the 29th Athens International Film Festival

The Athens International Film Festival returns for its 29th edition from September 27th to October 8th. The international institution offers unique cinematic experiences and outlets to the city's residents and visitors, highlights new voices of world cinema, presents to the audience some of the best and most anticipated films of the year accompanied by special guests and organizes tributes, special screenings, masterclasses and parallel events, justifying the fanatical love of the audience all these years.

With great pleasure, while the 13th Athens Open Air Film Festival is still going on, we present to you the poster of the 29th Athens International Film Festival, by visual communication designer Vassilis Mexis.

The poster in the words of its creator: 

"What do you see?

This year's visual is influenced by the Rorschach inkblot projection test. During this test, the participant is asked to interpret the unclear and ambiguous shapes he or she sees on the test cards. In each case, the first question he is asked and what he is essentially asked to answer is 'what he sees'. 

In everyday life, we are used to associating the word 'viewing' with the cinematic experience. The term 'projection', however, belongs primarily to psychoanalysis and refers to the process by which the subject attributes or displaces in the world around him - in persons or objects - characteristics, emotions and desires that he misrecognises or denies in himself.

What then is cinema if not such a projection of the self, a group session of sorts during which we face on the screen what we believe, feel or fantasize individually? This projection may be limited only to our own perception, without being identical with that of those around us, and may cover a spectrum as wide and varied as the human condition. It is unique and completely personal, an emergence of intangible qualities and emotions directly from our subconscious.

So what do we see in this picture? Something optimistic or something ominous? A flower, a bud? A symbolic and imaginary explosion of color interwoven with the miraculous function of sight? A shape fluid and ever-changing but with a specific philosophy and conception?

What do we see when we look at this picture? What do we see when we watch a movie? Are we ultimately seeing ourselves? The answers are yours... "

Vassilis Mexis, a Bachelor's distinguished in Graphic Design, is the designer behind the Athens Open Air Film Festival and the Athens International Film Festival  from 2016 to date. At the same time, since 2013 he has been working in the advertising industry as an Art Director, having participated in distinguished campaigns, while he has been responsible for the design of book and magazine covers of large circulation. His work has been featured in the print and electronic press, having received praise and awards in national and international competitions.

The full programme of the 29th Athens will be announced during the Press Conference on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 19.00 at the Astor Cinema.