26th Athens International Film Festival: Opening Ceremony

Mr Loukas Katsikas gave his profound thanks to the  Minister of Culture and Sports, Ms. Lina Mendoni, to the General Directorate of Contemporary Culture and the General Secretariat of Contemporary Culture for their unyielding support in the implementation of this year's event. He also thanked the Minister for Development and Investment, Mr Adonis Georgiadis, and the Secretary General of Public Investment and ESIF, Mr Dimitris Skalkos, who attended the Opening Ceremony, for supporting the Festival. Mr Katsikas expressed his hope that the Greek State would continue to aid the cultural institutions of the country. Among the honorary guests at the event were MPs of the New Democracy party Ioannis Pappas and Olga Kefalogianni.

The Artistic Director of the Festival, Loukas Katsikas welcomed the audience and invited, on behalf of the Mayor of Athens, the Deputy Mayor of Extroversion and Civil Society, Katerina Gagaki, in order to address the audience briefly. Ms. Gagaki stated that the Municipality of Athens offers its staunch support to the institution of the Athens International Film Festival through its cooperation with the Organization of Culture, Sports and Youth of the Municipality of Athens (OPANDA), an institution that "has put Athens on the European film map", and spoke passionately about the cinematic experience which is "dreamy, familial, seductive, it takes us on a journey and connects us", emphasizing that this magnificent experience cannot be hindered by masks. She concluded her speech by urging the audience to "fill cinemas while staying safe" and with the wish "for all of us to enjoy cinema next year in an embrace".

The opening ceremony was attended by Museologist, Art Historian and Cultural Advisor to the Mayor of Athens, Katerina Koskina, the President of the jury of the International Competition sections, Michel Dimopoulos, the Director of the Promotions Department (Hellas Film) at the Greek Film Centre, Athena Kalkopoulou, The Director of Ethnofest and member of the jury of the International Documentary Competition section, Konstantinos Aivaliotis, the film critic, Thodoris Koutsogiannopoulos and journalist and publisher Lambis Tagmatarchis.

Other distinguished guests from the artistic sector also honoured the Festival with their presence such as directors Eva Stefani, Christos Nikou, Elias Giannakakis, Nicos Perakis, Aliki Danezi-Knutsen, Nikos Kornilios, Nikos Skarentzos and Dimitris Bavellas, actor-director Panos Vlachos, actors Christos Stergioglou, Maria Kallimani, Ioanna Triantafyllidou, Apostolis Totsikas and Iovi Fragatou, photographer Roula Revi and composer Minos Matsas.

The Festival’s Artistic Director, Loukas Katsikas, took to the podium once more and welcomed the audience to the 26th Athens International Film Festival stating that he declared the festival open “with great sentiment. More than ever before. Because being here tonight wasn't easy. The Festival team worked night and day and up until a few hours ago to restructure the Festival programme so as to fully comply with the sudden new measures announced last Friday. This entailed  revising the already printed programme and moving the entirety of the screenings to open-air cinemas.

We achieved this  through a process of scholastic preparation, which took place a while ago, just in case, while at the same time deciding to give viewers from all over Greece, and NATURALLY those vulnerable, the ability to attend the Athens International Film Festival from the comfort of their own home through an online platform, for a minimal fee. I wholeheartedly hope the Festival takes place as planned and in accordance with all necessary health and safety measures, responsibly and with the audience’s safety at heart.

The Festival goes on optimistically with love for its audience, one of the few in the world which will take place as usual, in its natural space, which is none other than the cinema. Cinema is our steady priority, especially this year when as a result of the quarantine we were deprived of it and with the fear of that happening again lingering on. We hoped and aimed to get people back into cinemas safely and with renewed morale. Because we can no longer take the experience of watching films in cinemas for granted. It should, however, remain our primary aim.

By taking place as usual, the Athens International Film Festival wishes to highlight the precious nature of culture as precious as our need for oxygen, even behind the most durable masks, even in the face of such adverse conditions. The Festival also wishes to maintain a modicum of normalcy in our lives: honouring the  tradition of the Festival signalling the start of autumn and the Greek film season. But our main concern is that the audience not be deprived of its beloved Festival, of their need for new cinematic experiences. An audience, which this year especially, thanks to the Athens International Film Festival will have the opportunity to be the first to watch highly-anticipated films at the same time as audiences from other international film festivals around the world.

Finally, in spite of the adverse conditions, I ought to acknowledge that the weeks in quarantine made us care more about our fellow man, made us take steps in the right direction, made us become better at our jobs and of course made us embrace, with even greater love, that for which we have gathered here tonight. A unique thing. Cinema!”

Saying farewell to those in attendance and before the screening commenced, Loukas Katsikas ended his speech by saying  “I look forward to catching up with you on the 5th October, after the completion of the Festival and when we are all a little more carefree. We will remember this Festival forever. Thank you so very much, be safe and be well”.

His closing created quite a stir in the audience and the guests gave a lengthy and warm applause cheering loudly for the realisation of the Festival event and smiling behind their masks.

The Artistic Director of the 26th Athens International Film Festival thanked his collaborators and supporters once more, especially our Main Supporter, COSMOTE TV, the City of Athens Cultural, Sport and Youth Organisation (OPANDA), the Sponsor of the Greek Short Stories section Nespresso, the Sponsor of the Fischer Audience Award, Jameson the Events Supporter, the Air Travel Sponsor, Aegean, the Transportation Sponsor, Sfakianakis Ltd. - Mini, Zolotas Jewelry, the Athens Concert Hall, Goethe Institut,  the French Institute of Greece and the French Embassy in Greece, the Czech Cultural Centre of Athens the Polish Embassy in Greece, the Swedish Embassy in Greece, the Italian Cultural Institute and Luce Cinecitta, the distributors AMA FILMS, FEELGOOD ENTERTAINMENT, FILMTRADE, ODEON/ FOX Searchlight, ROSEBUD 21, STRADA FILMS, CAROUSEL FILMS, WEIRD WAVE and CINOBO, TROUT Creative Hub for this year’s spot, Vassilis Mexis for his wonderful poster and all the Festival’s graphic creations, Airotel Alexandros hotel for hospitality for festival guests, GIANTES restaurant for providing meals for guests and jury members, the Urban Rail Transport, Viva.gr and Viva Wallet for issuing tickets and film passes, Art of Sound, our interpreters Theodora Tsapoiti and Irene Sarli - Theofylaktopoulou, the directors and producers who honour us with their films but also all of the volunteers of this event for their immeasurable help.

ONLINE FISCHER AUDIENCE AWARD 

The 26th Athens International Film Festival includes yet another innovation. Due to the health and safety measures, and for the optimal protection of the Festival audience and its collaborators, the voting for the films participating in the International Competition Section which are in the running for the Fischer Audience Award will be held online.

For the purpose of the voting, the Festival and Fischer have created a new microsite, fischeraudienceaward.aiff.gr. At the beginning and at the end of each screening of this year’s International Competition section, taking place in cinemas, audience members will be shown a unique code displayed on the screen which they can use to vote with once the screening is over, thus determining the result of the competition and choosing the film which will receive the Fischer Audience Award at the 26th Athens International Film Festival.

Furthermore, for the first time in the Festival, the voting process is updated. Instead of audience members merely choosing whether they liked a film or not, as of this year they will be able to vote by giving a film between 1 and 5 stars depending on how much they liked it.

OPENING and CLOSING 

The 26th Athens International Film Festival enjoyed a celebratory opening with the Greek premiere of NOMADLAND by Chloé Zhao a few days after its world premiere and great distinction at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion and the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival which traditionally guarantees the winner a place in the big categories of the upcoming Academy Awards, if not the Oscar for Best Picture, itself. 

We would like to thank Odeon | Fox Searchlight for kindly allowing us to screen the film.

The curtains will close on the 26th Festival event on Saturday 3rd October at the open-air cinema AEGLI ZAPPIOU IDEAL with the Closing Ceremony and the presentation of the awards of the International Competition Sections of the 26th AIFF with the Greek premiere of UNDINE by Christian Petzold. The film’s protagonist, the charming Paula Beer was honoured with the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

We would like to thank ΑΜΑ Films for kindly allowing us to screen the film.

Especially for this year’s Festival event our screenings will take place in the open-air cinemas AEGLI ZAPPIOU, CINE ANESIS, CINE ATHINAIA, RIVIERA, TRIANON, LAIS - the Greek Film Archive Foundation, STELLA and ARTEMIS.

You can find the details of the 26th Athens International Film Festival schedule here: www.aiff.gr.

To purchase tickets online click here .

For the online screenings of the 26th Athens International Film Festival visit online.aiff.gr

For updates and more information tune into the sites of aiff.gr and cinemagazine.gr and the relevant social media pages: Facebook AIFF, Instagram, Twitter.  

The 26th Athens International Film Festival takes place under the auspices of and with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports