Originating in 2016, the Greek Film Festival in Berlin was initially known as Hellas Filmbox Berlin before festival director Sofia Stavrianidou and her team rebranded it to its current name in 2020. The innovative program has benefitted both German and international audiences in its ten editions. More than this, since 2022, the festival has travelled to play cinemas in Frankfurt and, from 2023, in Cologne too.
The festival offered its usual five-day screenings for its special tenth-anniversary edition. Once again taking place at Berlin’s Babylon Mitte Cinema, this year, a total thirty-three films were presented in three competitions and special screenings, including six International premieres, eighteen German premieres, and three Berlin premieres. The competitions were the main Emerging Greeks competition, Documentary, and Short Films. There were also special screenings, a side event, and an installation.
The Opening Film and Competition Section
This year, the Opening Film was Stelios, directed by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. It was also in the non-competition section called Notes on Film. Stelios showcases the life of legendary singer Stelios Kazantzidis (1931-2001). Coming from a Pontic refugee family, his immense talent helped him overcome social and personal challenges, like losing his father at an early age, being an immigrant, and the struggle against poverty. With his ‘Laiko’ (a Greek folk-pop music genre) songs, he won the hearts of a nation. For such a vibrant opening film on the festival’s tenth edition, Stelios contains both the appropriately Greek celebratory of life factor and the personal struggles, both often found in Greek song. Afterwards, many of the audience stayed behind for the hour-long Q&A with director Yorgos Tsemberopoulos.
In the main competition this year, six films were competing for the best prize award in the section called Emerging Greeks Competition. Brando with a Glass Eye, directed by Antonis Tsonis, is set in the Greek capital, Athens, and concerns a heist that goes wrong with its subsequent redemption. It also plays with contemporary narrative forms and visual styles, merging fantasy with reality and life imitating art. In a similar vein, Killerwood by Christos Massalas blends fiction with perceived notions of reality. The premise of a young director’s film is a list of unsolved murders in Athens. However, they could also be the workings of a real-life serial killer.
Moving away from Athens, images of Greece that are embedded in many people’s mind are the countless Islands, some commercial, many splendid in their remoteness. In Kyuka: Before Summer’s End by Kostis Charamountanis, the island of Poros is the setting. It is summer, and a single father and his adolescent twin children set sail to the island, not so far from the port city of Piraeus. However, by chance, they will meet their mother there, the mother who abandoned them when they were babies. More remote exotic islands are the setting for Maldives by Daniel Bolda. This time, the family comprises one man and his dog living in the secluded mountains. However, the man’s world turns upside down when the dog disappears.
Returning to the Greek mainland and domesticity again, but still with the familiar Greek backdrop, is Riviera by Orfeas Peretzis. When her mother announces they will leave, Alkistis contemplates one final summer living on the Athenian Riviera. This impending closure is symbolized in such nuances as a dying palm tree that seems to run parallel with a doomed romance. Finally, Meat by Dimitris Nakos is set in a village in the Greek countryside. After opening his butcher shop, Takis is confronted with truth and loyalty after a local conflict leads to a major problem. When his son kills a neighbor who aggressively claimed part of their land, there is one witness, an Albanian called Christos, who has also been a long-term and faithful employee of Takis since childhood.
Tribute: Notes on Film
Following the Opening Film Stelios, the out-of-competition section called Tribute: Notes on Film screened a further four films during the festival. Retrospective Greek offerings were assimilated with more recent films, all paying tribute to the makers of music in Greece throughout the last century while balancing documentary with fiction films. Edge of Night (2000) by Nikos Panayotopoulos particularly draws allusions to Stelios as it harks back to the age of seedy bars in remote Greece. The narrative tells of an aspiring singer who leaves Athens, hoping for her big break, which proves elusive. The film’s musical score was by renowned Greek composer Stamatis Kraounakis.
Made in 2019, Eftihia is a celebration of the life of Eftihia Papagianopoulou (1893-1972). The film portrays her struggles and dreams to become a poet and lyricist. In 1919, before the Greco-Turkish War, she escaped from Smyrna to Greece with her mother and two children in search of fame. Eftihia is further recognition for the poet, who suffered the bitter-sweet fate of not becoming famous until after her death at the age of seventy-eight.
Yani Spanos: A Life Behind the Marquee, by Aris Dorizas, is an intriguing documentary. Made in 2023, it portrays the humble life of the Greek composer, born Ioannes ‘Giannis’ Spanos (1934-2019). It also follows his collaborations in Paris and fame in his homeland. All this is seen through the eyes of a fan, with rare interviews and documents. The use of animation and collage also enhances and compliments the archive footage by giving the whole documentary an elevated resonance.
Nikos Chantzis Return of the Creeps (2024) celebrates the famous Athens-based record label. An energetic documentary, it prominently looks at the life of Creep Records, its founder Babis Dallidis, and many of the main players in the label that became a movement. Despite lasting only four years (1982-1986), Creep Records created a legacy of the Greek New Wave scene influenced by the ‘Do It Yourself’ ethic they saw in places like England. This included the Post-Punk and Dark Wave genres that had emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For a short time, Greece could be proud of producing exciting home-grown artists. Interviewed here are Babis Dallidis and members of bands such as Angelo and His Egos, Art of Parties, Clown, Cpt Nefos, Headleaders, Metro Decay, Rehearsed Dreams, The Reporters, South Of No North, Villa 21, and The Vyllies.
The Documentary Competition and Special Screenings
Like the main Emerging Greeks Competition, the Documentary Competition had six films competing for the prize. Two of the short feature films (‘featurettes’) screened together in one program: Panagiotis Papafragkos’ First Milk takes a more poetic-semiotic stance for its expression, rhythmically captures the cycle of life: birth-death-rebirth. Just like the seasons and nature, all things must pass. Farewell: And Suddenly Memory Began to Remember, by Ada Pitsou, looks at creativity after dementia. The subject of the latter film is the renowned Greek psychotherapist Toula Vlachoutsikou.
Stray Bodies by Elina Psykou is concerned with choices and laws regarding the body and dignity. Abortion, IVF, and euthanasia now benefit from the transnational salvation of the increasingly popular ‘medical tourism’. The film, therefore, becomes a medical road trip through Europe. Panellinion, directed by Spyros Mantzavinos and Kostas Antarachas, is set in a central Athens chess coffeehouse. This is also the setting for tales of ghosts, obsession, solitude, and madness. A number of the regulars who played have since passed, but those that remain feel their presence. Asked if he joins in the chess games, the café owner says he couldn’t run the business if he did.
Continuing the theme of personal health challenges is Loxy by Thanasis Kafetzis and Dimitris Zahos. Young Loxandra, who has Down syndrome, signs a five-month acting contract with the National Theater of Greece. In this, she becomes the first disabled person to do so. Leaving her city and everyday life behind, she travels to Athens to fulfill this ambition. However, is she able to face the world alone for the first time?
Finally, Tack by Vania Turner, is a documentary on the Olympian who pioneered Greece’s #MeToo movement. Sofia Bekatorou, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for Sailing, was a victim of abuse. In this film, she helps a young athlete Amalia through her own ordeal. Amalia is seeking justice for the systematic abuse she endured at the hands of her coach. This happened when she was just eleven-years-old, and with Sofia’s help she has finally come forward.
Out of the Documentary competition, there were two special documentary screenings. EMBROS: A Free Self-Managed Theatre by Alkistis Kafetzi looks at the former printing office of the Athens newspaper Embros that in 1989 became the Embros Theater. The film looks closer at this self-organized artistic community in the present. The Sock by Kyros Papavassiliou follows a struggling film director who has an accident that leaves him temporarily disabled. He receives help in his recovery by his cousin, who is permanently disabled himself.
Short Films Competition, Side Event and Installation
To showcase new talent, there was the Short Films Competition, divided into three screening programs. The first program comprised (co-productions stated where applicable): Zange (Director: Iris Baglanea, Greece-Sweden-Cyprus), Snowglobes (Director: Gregory Vardarinos), My First Wedding (Director: Andreas Chalikias), numb (Director: Despina Kourti), and Golden Fingers (Director: Fivos Kontogiannis). The second program consisted of four films: Honeymoon (Director: Alki Papastathopoulos, Greece-France-Cyprus), Mauve (Director: Jo Capralou), Pigeons are Dying, When the City is on Fire (Director: Stavros Markoulakis, Greece-The Netherlands), and Scorched Earth (Director: Markela Kontaratou). The third program comprised four Student Shorts: Bumper Cars (Director: Efi Anagnostidou), POP (Director: Lina Kountoura), Concrete Rodents (Director: Apostolis Ganatsios), and The Chaos She Left Behind (Director: Nikos Kolioukos).
A unique side event this year was the presentation and panel discussion that went by the title The Handmade Cinema and the Influence of Music in Films. Taking place at the llluseum Berlin, the event was also in tandem with the Tribute: Notes on Film program. Using director Renos Haralambidis’ Athens Midnight Radio as a case study, it also looked at the independent ‘Do It Yourself’ approach to making films and what the challenges are in this. The director was joined in the panel discussion by Stefanos Ganos (group director) and Panos Karananos (music producer) of the Musou Music Group that produced the entire music soundtrack for the film.
Finally, the Babylon Cinema venue’s Mirror Room was the setting for an art installation called Mikis Satellites – Trans for More, a conceptual work by Asteris and Ina Kutulas in collaboration with Michalis Argyrou, Achilleas Gatsopoulos, and Giorgos Kolios. This polymedia artwork was inspired by legendary Greek composer and writer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021) in a year when he would have been celebrating his 100th birthday. As a larger collaborative project, it featured more than fifty predominantly young artists from more than ten countries, and it is based on forty satellite video clips of Mikis created from 2017 to 2025. This installation also served as a continuation of Dance Fight Love Die – With Mikis on the Road (2017) that collected documentary material from travels Kutulas made with Theodorakis over almost thirty years with 600 hours of raw footage edited into an essay film. The main creators of the installation project were also present during the four days of the installation at the Babylon Cinema.
Closure: Awards and Celebration
At the award ceremony on 30th March, the winner of the main Emerging Greeks Competition award was Meat by Dimitris Nakos. The jury also gave their motivation for the award. Part of it read, “…a feature debut which kept our attention throughout… We were impressed by the film’s unique visual style and dramaturgy, as well as memorable and striking performances from the actors.” Director Dimitris Nakos was present to pick up the award. The 2025 Competition Jury was Simone Baumann (Germany), Nikos Smpiliris (Greece), and Dr. Martin Blaney (UK).
The same jury also awarded the prize for the Documentary competition. The winner was Tack by Vania Turner. Within the jury motivation, it read, “…a film which shows utmost sensitivity in the way it addresses its subject, which is not only a Greek problem, but one of universal significance and relevance, for audiences far outside of Greece’s borders. The filmmaker closely follows two victims of sexual abuse in their struggle to obtain justice and also highlights the impact these revelations have had on their loved ones.” Furthermore, they commended the animated sequences in the courtroom that could not be filmed. The use of silence and subtitles heightened the eerie court atmosphere. Director Vania Turner was also present to receive her award.
Honeymoon by Alki Papastathopoulos won the Short Film award. The film is a serious plea from the transgender community for support in equality and inclusion. The jury said, “What could have been a story about victims became a story about heroes.” Lead actress Nassia Sydeta picked up the 500 euros award for the absent director that was sponsored by Illuseum Berlin. A Special Mention was awarded to the short Scorched Earth, by Markela Kontaratou. The jury justified how “…the female gaze turned a simple story of a stay by the sea into a thriller with an unexpected twist at the end.” The Shorts Jury comprised of Pierpaolo Festa (Italy), Karen Cifarelli (USA), and Marios Gavrilis (Greece-Germany).
After the award ceremony, there was the screening of this year’s closing film, Athens Midnight Radio by Renos Haralambidis. An Athens late-night radio producer turns fifty and realizes he’s no longer young. On air, he reminisces about his life so far with creeping regret. The solitude feels ghost-like, complimented by the sumptuously filmed Athens night. For its German premiere, main actor and director Renos Haralambidis introduced the film and spoke of his long-standing affection for Berlin and the Babylon Cinema. Joining him for the Q&A after the screening were producer Angelos Venetis and main actress Margarita Amarantidi.
Following the closing ceremony, a party was held in Berlin to sign off on this special tenth edition. In the presence of guests, the festival team cut the commemorative birthday cake. The Greek Film Festival Goes Frankfurt and The Greek Film Festival Goes Köln are scheduled to take place in September 2025 with a choice selection of films from Berlin’s recent festival program.
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