Press Conference of the 29th Athens International Film Festival

On Wednesday 20 September 2023, the Press Conference for the 29th Athens International Film Festival was held at ASTOR cinema by the Artistic Director of AIFF, Loukas Katsikas, in the presence of the President of Athens Film Society, Maria Bobola. The General Director, ms Tatiana Pappa and Loukas Katsikas welcomed the audience that was able to attend both physically at the movie theater and via streaming on the Festival’s social media.

Please see the Press Conference video HERE

The 29th version spot created by TROUT Creative Hub, HERE.

Η Tatiana Pappa gave a warm welcome the audience and began by making a reference to the 13th Athens Open Air Film Festival which was concluded a few days ago. The summer action of AIFF ‘grows each year and travels more consistently on the Aegean with the support of Mykonos Art Festival, the Region of South Aegean and the Municipality of Serifos’, while it spread cinematic magic throughout Athens in a series of unforgettable 29TH ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • PRESS CONFERENCE #aiff29 classic films and the Greek premiere of ANATOMY OF A FALL, this year’s winner of Palme D’ Or at Cannes.

She then thanked OPANDA for the co-organization and its support at both Festivals and called the President, Ms Niki Arabatzi, who greeted the audience on behalf of the Mayor, Mr. Kostas Bakogiannis. Ms Niki Arabatzi spoke joyfully about the connection of the festival with Athens’ cultural life for 29 years now and congratulated the Festival for ‘being refreshed and enriched each year, keeping a high quality’. Finally she wished for ‘the movie theaters to become filled with viewers who shall enjoy an incomparable cinematic experience’.

Then, Tatiana Pappa, thanked the Region of Attica and its ESPA Operational Program for the brave support, the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Culture for their auspice and support, while she happily announced the beginning of our collaboration with EKOME (National Center of Audiovisual Media and Communication) and thanked Mr. Leonidas Christopoulos for the support and recognition of our offer and work.

Afterwards, Ms. Tatiana Pappa warmly thanked all the sponsors and supporters of the event and welcomed on stage Ms. Agapi Kefalogianni, Senior Program Manager NOVA, the Major Sponsor of the Festival, 'a creative relationship based on mutual admiration and trust’. Mrs. Kefalogianni said: ‘We are very happy that for the 2nd year NOVA is supporting AIFF, this unique International Festival in the city of Athens and we hope to continue participating in the coming years. As NOVA, we effectively support domestic productions and have come to count 120 films while expanding our support to series as well’.

PROGRAMME PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION / EPILOGUE BY LOUKAS KATSIKAS | IDEAL

Then, the Artistic Director of the Festival, Loukas Katsikas welcomed the audience and before the programme presentation he said: What is a film festival indeed besides the films, the events, the audience, the suggestions, the discoveries, the heartwarming moments shared with its beloved viewers? A film festival is above all the movie theater. Without the movie theater there can be no festival, no cinema and no culture unless home entertainment is now considered culture and we have reached the point where we think of our living room or bedroom as a movie theater.

For this reason, the 29th AIFF would like to celebrate open-heartedly with its audience and its city, presenting one of the most powerful and rich programs ever. But to celebrate carefree, especially this year, would mean to turn a blind eye, ignoring rashly the harsh truth.

And what truth is that? That the center of the capital, once a place filled with movie theatres, is diminishing and gradually disappearing. One after the other, the movie theatres perish. After the wasting away of ATTIKON and APOLLON, the beloved ‘homes’ of AIFF without which nothing was ever the same again, another ‘home’ for the Festival and the Athenian audience is forced to close its doors. That theater is IDEAL, an architectural masterpiece, with a 102 years old history, where countless generation of movie goers were raised and nurtured.

For this reason and due to the grim future looming over the viability of the movie theater in our city as well as the viability of the cinematic experience, this year’s AIFF wants to but cannot rejoice and celebrate. In fact, every screening at IDEAL will be like a small and bitter goodbye. So if we are to hold on to something from this year’s AIFF is the sorrow for everything that we helplessly lose and the realisation of some kind of end. Not only for IDEAL but for all the movie theaters that will have the same sad fate and also for a city watching its movie theatres perish, taking with them an important part of its culture.

OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS

The 29th AIFF opens 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 these 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.

GREEK SHORT STORIES

Panos Gkenas, the Greek Short Stories in Competition Selection Coordinator and Editor in Chief of cinemagazine.gr, presented one of the most popular and vibrant sections of the Festival, ‘Greek Short Stories’. Mr Gkenas said ‘It is with great joy that we present the 47 films of the Greek Short Stories in Competition section of the 29th AIFF, serving as an exciting connection with the new, vigorous Greek cinema. We thank you all for your trust. This year we had 308 submissions! The 47 films chosen that will compete for the awards of the section have a special gaze-comment on current affairs, many social concerns, special performances, perceptiveness into reality, experimental narration, inventive animation, films that have been praised at foreign festivals such as Cannes, Clermond Ferrand and Locarno, and films that we introduce. We invite you to enjoy them at the Festival’. Furthermore, Panos Gkenas presented the Jury: the multi-awarded director and screenwriter Aggelos Frantzis (President), actor Orpheas Avgoustidis, publisher Marilena Karamolegou, film critic Poly Lykourgou and producer Vicky Micha.

He went on to discuss analytically the Awards of the Section, of 11,500 euros worth (Greek Film Center, Ant1 Screenplay School and Onassis Award) and announce that the awards for Male and Female Performance -as well as Direction- will be accompanied by a 5 year subscription as Premium Member to the Crew United platform, launching a new collaboration with the leading internet networking platform for audiovisual professionals, now running in Greece as Crew United Greece.

We would like to thank the General Director of the Greek Film Center, Athina Kartalou, Onassis Foundation, Ant1 Media Lab, and Venia Verge of Crew United.

On Friday 29 September, AIFF in collaboration with the Creative Europe Desk MEDIA OF the Greek Film Center will have the pleasure and honor to host a masterclass entitled 29TH ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • PRESS CONFERENCE #aiff29 ‘Fatih Akin, Head on’. The internationally renowned and awarded director Fatih Akin will present a masterclass on filmmaking for young filmmakers at Goethe Institute. We would like to thank Anna Kasimati of the Creative Europe Desk MEDIA for the wonderful cooperation once again, as well as Goethe Institute.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

The Festival’s Artistic Director presented the 16 films from all over the world that will compete for the GOLDEN ATHENA, Director Award of the City of Athens, Screenplay Award and Fischer Audience Award and announced the directors, actors and actresses, and producers that will honor us with their presence at the screenings!

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY

The International Competition Documentary was presented to the public by Tasos Alevras, Documentary Director and Festival collaborator in the Production Department, saying: ‘For this year's Festival, we have selected 11 feature-length documentaries that will compete for the GOLDEN ATHENS, which come to us from all over the world, bringing together several topics of current affairs always with the dose of artistry that serves this dual quality of documentaries to inform and entertain at the same time’.

FEATURES

WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME: 14 (WILD) NIGHTS AT SCALA CINEMA

London’s Scala Cinema was for more than a decade the most eclectic art house cinema in England, that its pluralistic film programme nurtured the most sophisticated generation of viewers in the ‘80s and that it was there that directors such as Cristopher Nolan, Martin McDonagh, Peter Strickland, Ben Whitley and Marry Harron etc  got their film education. In fact, Christopher Nolan still carries in his wallet his annual membership card so he can visit whenever he can.

For the occasion of the feature and the premier of their delightful documentary SCALA!, the writer and director Jane Giles, former program director at Scala, and the co-director of the documentary Ali Catterall will honor us with their presence.

The following films will be screened: DEAD RINGERS by David Cronenberg, Ms.45 by Abel Ferrara, A TOUCH OF ZEN by King Hu, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE by Mario Bava, THE WARRIORS by Walter Hill, VARIETY by Betty Gordon, THE TENANT by Roman Polanski, TAXI TO THE TOILET by Frank Ripploh, THUNDERCRACK by Kurt McDowell, ΤΗΕ SHOUT by Jerzy Skllimowski, KISS ME DEADLY by Ρόμπερτ Όλντριτζ, IMMORAL TALES by Walerian Borowczyk, OUT OF THE BLUE by Dennis Hopper .

DISNEY 100 FEATURE: CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAGIC

Τhe 29th AIFF in collaboration with VISA, participate in the international celebration for Disney’s 100 years honoring 100 years of vivid imagination and passion for stories.

SCORSESE’S ‘KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’AND OTHER MUCH ANTICIPATED PREMIERES

The most anticipated film of the year and the most hot event of this year’s programme, is the Greek premier of Martin Scorsese’s new film, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

The programme of the 29th AIFF includes other much anticipated films such as Andrew Haigh’s masterpiece ALL OF US STRANGERS with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, MAY DECEMBER by our favourite Todd Haynes, THE BEAST by Bertrand Bonello, ANSELM 3D by Wim Wenders, the Venice award-winning (and a mini-scandal for its country, Poland) GREEN BODER by Agnieszka Holland, the Cannes award-winning ABOUT DRY GRASSES by Bilge Ceylan, PRISCILLA by Sofia Coppola, awarded at Venice, DREAM SCENARIO by Kristoffer Borgli with Nicolas Cage, MEMORY by Michel Franco, awarded at Venice, with the amazing Jessica Chasten and Peter Saarsgard, LAST SUMMER by Catherine Breillat, RED ISLAND by Robin Campillo, THE ROYAL HOTEL by Kitty Green and THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE by İlker Çatak, which ‘in a few months will be in the five films competing for the Academy Award for the Best International Film’

SIDE EVENTS

The Press Conference continued with the presentation by the Communication Manager of the Festival, Maria Nathanail, of the side events of this year's Festival, who stated that the Festival team ‘just like every year, we tried to expand the social footprint of the Festival through a series of actions, which we have curated with care and are proud to present’:

In particular, the Press Conference as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Festival are realized with simultaneous interpretation in Greek sign language by the Festival's collaborator, Ms. Androniki Xanthopoulou.

In addition, the Festival, true to its social policy, offers 2,000 free tickets for the unemployed at this year's event, while supporting and promoting the humanitarian action of the organization APOSTOLI ANTHROPOS, which this year will offer all the proceeds to the flood victims of our country.

Finally, the 29th AIFF includes a series of side events with FREE ADMISSION, from Masterclasses with prominent names of the film community (MASTERCLASS "Fatih Akin, Head on", CREW UNITED DAY), to screenings and Open Discussions on mental health (‘Method Stanislavski: The emotion in the treatment of mental addiction’ in collaboration with KETHEA IN ACTION), the history of the unique Greek kiosks (‘Periptero: Je t'aime moi non plus’) but also minority rights (TRANSISTENCE).

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 29TH ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • PRESS CONFERENCE #aiff29 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.

JAMESON offered the audience at the Press Conference cinephile cocktails.
#aiff29

TICKET PRESALE

Please note that the ticket presale (on www.aiff.gr and more.com) starts today Thursday, 21 September at 12.00 p.m, only for card holders and tomorrow Friday, 22 September at 12.00 p.m. for the entire audience.

The card sale for the 29th AIFF continues.

See you at the cinemas!

Τhe 29th Athens International Film Festival will be held from 27 September to 9 October 2023.