29th Athens International Film Festival: Opening Ceremony

Loukas Katsikas, Artistic Director of Athens International Film Festival took the stage of a packed PALLAS theater and shared a personal and especially touching story about how his life and career paths changed radically overnight thanks to a screening at IDEAL movie theater, when he was a teenager, in September 1989. He used his own example, ‘a story just like so many others’ who have been to IDEAL, made friendships there, found love, and lived some of their most unforgettable cinematic experiences’, to pay homage to the legendary movie theater of Athens that by closing its doors in such an inglorious manner, will leave a void that will be hard to fill. He noted that Athens, its residents and of course the Festival will lose yet another home, as was the case with ATTIKON and APOLLLON. ‘They will lose a vital part of themselves and in the end all we will have left will be the memories and some photographs as a painful reminder that once there was more beauty in everything and everything was better’. He underlined that ‘a once literally and metaphorically luminous area such as Panepistimiou Street is plunged gradually into darkness as its beautiful lights go out one by one’. He finished his speech with the thought that this year’s programme, filled with touching films about love, may be an answer to the overtly cynical times we live in now, wishing that we won’t lose hope and that we will keep on finding strength in what we still have left.

You can see it here:

https://www.facebook.com/AthensFilmFestival/videos/2029830787383870

Distinguished guests from the art industry, cinema, theater, television and music, as well as spokespeople of important public and private bodies and institutions that support consistently and effectively the artistic creations in our country honored the ceremony with their presence.

International directors Molly Manning Walker (HOW TO HAVE SEX) and Agniia Galdanova (QUEENDOM), director Ming Liang and actor Zhao Bingrui (CAREFREE DAYS), as well as actor Bjorn Elgerd (OPPONENT) and Fatih Akin!

Directors Aggelos Frantzis (President of the jury of GREEK SHORT STORIES section), Argiris Papadimitropoulos, Tzortzis Grigorakis, Antouaneta Aggelidi, Evaggelia Kraninoti, Nikos Skarentzos, Markos Gkastin, Nikos Perakis, Sofia Exarchou, Vasiliks Kekatos, Nikos Pastras, actors Kariofilia Karabeti, Klelia Andriolatou, Kostas Nikouli, Dimitris Pietas, Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos, Andreas Konstantinou, Ioanna Triantafillidiou, Sofia Kokkali, Marissa Triantafililidou, Thanos Tokakis, Dimitra Sigala, Katia Gkoulioni, Nereli Kouri, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Katerina Geronikolou, Michelle Valley, Ephie Kantza, Christos Stergioglou, Ksenia Niania, Alexandros Perros, Apostolos Kamitsakis, Melissanthi Machout, Nikos Koukas, Valeria Christodoulidou, choreographer and director Konstantinos Rigos, journalists Sofia Papaioannou and Dora Anagnostopoulou, set designer and director of ‘Fonissa’ Eva Nathan, musician Kostis Maravegias, producers Kostas Labropoulos, Giorgos Karnavas, Iraklis Mavroidis, fashion designer Vrettos 29th ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • OPENING CEREMONY #aiff29 Vrettakos, photographer Roula Revi, presenter Giorgos Lentzas, casting director Akis Gourzoulids and comedian Thomas Zambras.

The Deputy Minister of Maritime Affairs & Insular Policy, Ioannis Pappas honored the Festival with his presence, as well as the Secretary General for Public Investments and ESPA Dimitris Skalkos, the President of OPANDA, Niki Arabatzi, who stated «The City of Athens and OPANDA love cinema and Athens International Film Festival and we prove that 29th ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • OPENING CEREMONY #aiff29 effectively by acting as co-organizers ever since the beginning of the Festival. AIFF promises once again even greater richness with unique cinematic experiences on our screens. And the celebratory opening of the Festival with the most recent film by Pedro Almodovar, Strange Way of Life and Past Lives by Celine Song attest to that’, and the Artistic Director of Biennale, Poka Yio.

Also the Senior Programming Manager of Nova, Agapi Kefaloggiani stated: «At Nova we are in line with quality cinema offering our subscribers films of all kinds through the special designed zones at the cinema channels of Novacinema. We are happy to be the Major Sponsor of AIFF’ for the 2nd year, Giannis Katsougris, Head of Sponsorships of Athenian Brewery, Nikos Tsoniotis, Marketing Manager of Pernod Ricard, the CEO of Technopolis City of Athens, Konstantinos Bitzanis, the President of the Greek Film Center, Markos Choleva’s and collaborators and members of the Greek Film Center, Gianna Sarri and Iliana Zakopoulou, the Director of Audiovisual Media of the French Institute of Greece, Aimé Besson and the President of the Greek Film Archive, Maria Komninou.

We would like to thank Pallas Theater, the Theatrical Stages and City Link for accommodating the Festival, the Region of Attica, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, for its valuable support for realising this years event, as well as Organisation of Culture, Sports and Youth of the City of Athens (OPANDA) and its president, Niki Arabatzi, for the consistent and longstanding support to the Festival, the Festival’s Major Sponsor Nova, member of the United Group the leading multi-play telecoms and media provider in South East Europe, the National Center of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME) for our new collaboration, Jameson the Events Sponsor, Air Travel Sponsor AEGEAN, the Sponsor of the Fischer Audience Award, the Transportation Sponsor Αvance, 29th ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • OPENING CEREMONY #aiff29 ZOLOTAS jewellers, the Metropolitan College and the Athens Concert and all our supporters, the Embassies and Institutes, TROUT Creative Hub for this year’s spot, Valeria Christodoulidou who lends her to our radio and television spots, photographers Ioannis Stefanidis, Kiriaki Fragkiadaki, Sofia Papastrati and Sokratis Baltagiannis and videographer, Gevi Dimitarkopoulou, Nefeli Papaioannou, Damianos Aronidis and Kostas Nilsen, Vassilis Mexis for the poster design, the XFLOOR ROOFTOP BY ELECTRA restaurant for providing meals for festival guests and jury members meals, ELECTRA HOTELS & RESORTS for the hospitality for festival guests and More.com for issuing the tickets and cards and all the foundations, institutes, embassies and cultural bodies, the distributors, all the volunteers for the invaluable support as ever, for helping us have a successful Festival and be able to offer generously quality cinema and cultural actions to Greek and international audiences.

Party at City Link after the opening night:

The 29th AIFF opened with Pedro Almodovar’s most recent film STRANGE WAY OF LIFE and charming protagonists Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, a masterpiece of a short film which was applauded at Cannes, and PAST LIVES by Celine Song, the miraculous debut that accumulated the best reviews of the year internationally and is about to compete for the Academy Award for Best Film, Direction and Original Screenplay. Both films were screened for the first time in Greece.

We would like to thank FEELGOOD ENTERTAINMENT and TANWEER for providing the films.

This year’s festival will close on Saturday 7 October at ATHENS CONCERT HALL with the Closing ceremony and the Competition sections Awards of the Festival as well as the Greek premiere of one of the most important films of the year, THE BOY AND THE HERON, the film that marks the great return of the leading animation director, Hayao Miyazaki.

We would like to thank the sponsors of the festival for their valuable support: Jameson the Events Sponsor, Sponsor of the Fischer Audience Award Fischer, the Air Travel Sponsor AEGEAN, more.com, ZOLOTAS jewellers, the internal transportation Sponsor Avance, Disney and Visa for the DISNEY 100 Feature, the French Embassy and the French Institute of Greece, the Spanish Embassy and Instituto Ceervantes, the embassies of Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Centre and Goethe Institute, the Metropolitan College, TV5Monde, the ELECTRA HOTEL RESORTS, the restaurants XFloor Rooftop by Electra, Dopios & Cookoovaya, the City Link and the Pallas Theatrical Stages, the Athens Concert Hall, the Municipal Theater of Piraeus and all the movie theaters DANAOS Ι & ΙΙ, ASTY, ASTOR and our beloved IDEAL which will host the much anticipated films of the 29th Athens International Film Festival.

Finally we would like to thank distributors AMA FILMS, CINOBO, DANAOS FILMS, FEELGOOD ENTERTAINMENT, TFG - THE FILM GROUP, ROSEBUD.21, SPENTZOS FILM, TANWEER, WEIRD WAVE, ONE FROM THE HEART, CAROUSEL, FILMTRADE, and TROUT Creative Hub for this year’s spot, Valeria Christodoulidou who lends her voice to the Festival spots, our photographers and videographer, Vassilis Mexis for designing the posters and the volunteers for their invaluable help.

#aiff29

Photo credits: Giannis Stefanidis, Kiriaki Fragkiadaki, Sofia Papastrati, Sokratis Baltsogiannis