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Festival ran November 2-12.
Sofia Exarchou’s Animal has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the first time in 30 years a Greek production has won the top prize.
The film’s lead actress Dimitra Vlagopoulou also won the best actress award ex aequo with Joanna Arnow for US production The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, which she also directed.
Vlagopoulou had previously won best actress at Locarno where the film had its world premiere.
The Greek, Austrian, Romanian, Cypriot, Bulgarian co-production follows a group of women...
Sofia Exarchou’s Animal has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the first time in 30 years a Greek production has won the top prize.
The film’s lead actress Dimitra Vlagopoulou also won the best actress award ex aequo with Joanna Arnow for US production The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, which she also directed.
Vlagopoulou had previously won best actress at Locarno where the film had its world premiere.
The Greek, Austrian, Romanian, Cypriot, Bulgarian co-production follows a group of women...
- 11/15/2023
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
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Maria Hatzakou and Alexandra Matheou’s “Stringa,” a female-led folk-horror set in remote rural Greece, won the top prize at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which wrapped with an award ceremony Wednesday.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
- 11/9/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
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Reminiscent of the playful romcoms of recent years, Dimitris Tsakaleas and Lida Vartzioti’s Happy Ending is another heartwarming look at the awkwardness of love in the modern age. What struck me most upon watching Tsakaleas and Vartzioti’s film for the first time was the performances of their lead trio. There’s an honest and truthful clunkiness to their interactions which gives the film a rawness, allowing you to connect with them as people as opposed to characters. It turns out, as you’ll read in our interview below, that Tsakaleas and Lida Vartzioti were heavily inspired by mumblecore in their construction of the film’s dialogue. That approach combined with its gorgeous textured anamorphic look makes Happy Ending a cinematic delight well worth watching. Dn is excited to premiere Happy Ending online alongside a chat with Tsakaleas and Vartzioti where they talk about the American romantic comedies that...
- 10/26/2022
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
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A record 5,100 short films were submitted to the Cairo Film Festival’s short film competition this year, thanks to a new collaboration with FilmFreeWay. Around 1,200 shorts are sent in more usually for the region’s only A-list festival. The section comes with the added bonus of the winning film being submitted to the Oscars’ long list.
“We expanded the team to nine people, including volunteers, so we could properly assess each one,” Marouan Omara, the director of the Short Film Competition, tells Variety.
More than 3,800 shorts were submitted via the FilmFreeWay platform alone.
This year, 22 films are vying for the Youssef Chahine Award for Best Short Film, which comes with a $5,000 prize, sponsored by Clacket Media.
Ten of the films are by women directors. Five come from Egypt. Five from the Arab/Africa region. There are 12 international films.
“The selected films are diverse and show underrepresented communities and countries,” says Omara.
“We expanded the team to nine people, including volunteers, so we could properly assess each one,” Marouan Omara, the director of the Short Film Competition, tells Variety.
More than 3,800 shorts were submitted via the FilmFreeWay platform alone.
This year, 22 films are vying for the Youssef Chahine Award for Best Short Film, which comes with a $5,000 prize, sponsored by Clacket Media.
Ten of the films are by women directors. Five come from Egypt. Five from the Arab/Africa region. There are 12 international films.
“The selected films are diverse and show underrepresented communities and countries,” says Omara.
- 11/29/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
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European Film Promotion, a network of national film promotion bodies, has unveiled its lineup of films for its Future Frames program, which screen as part of Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s industry section, Eastern Promises.
Running under the banner “Generation Next of European Cinema,” the program will present 10 films directed by some of Europe’s most promising film students and graduates. The program, which has been expanded by several kick-off events, will be running from June 29 to July 8 in a digital format.
The filmmakers are nominated by their countries’ national film promotion institutes, with the final selection made by Karlovy Vary’s artistic director Karel Och, and its program coordinator Anna Purkrabkova.
Karlovy Vary canceled the public side of its festival this year, which Och acknowledged was a “tough decision,” and the industry section runs as a digital event. However, Och said: “Not even such challenging times will stop us...
Running under the banner “Generation Next of European Cinema,” the program will present 10 films directed by some of Europe’s most promising film students and graduates. The program, which has been expanded by several kick-off events, will be running from June 29 to July 8 in a digital format.
The filmmakers are nominated by their countries’ national film promotion institutes, with the final selection made by Karlovy Vary’s artistic director Karel Och, and its program coordinator Anna Purkrabkova.
Karlovy Vary canceled the public side of its festival this year, which Och acknowledged was a “tough decision,” and the industry section runs as a digital event. However, Och said: “Not even such challenging times will stop us...
- 6/16/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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