Country Focus: Greece
by Cineuropa
18/05/2010 - Articles, interviews, news, analysis on the Greek audiovisual sector.
Country profile: Greece
International Film Guide 2012: Greece
A survey of the film culture and output in Greece published by the International Film Guide.
Greece - International Film Guide Survey 2010
A survey of the film culture and output in Greece published by the International Film Guide.
Domestic market share drops while admissions soar in 2009
A spectacular 30% rise in general admissions offset a 7% drop in market share for homegrown titles in 2009. Greek films brought in 1.7 million viewers, a drop of 200,000 from 2008, for 12.6% of the 13.5 million admissions registered in 2009. Major distributors saw a dramatic rise in their year-end totals, thanks to the teen-oriented fare that dominated the market. Apocalyptic actioner 2012 rose to the top spot with 477,500 tickets, followed by Angels and Demons (414,000) and 2008 left-over...
Greece takes the helm of Observatory for 2010
The European Audiovisual Observatory has announced that Greece will hold its Presidency for 2010. Greece is represented in the Observatory’s governing body, the Executive Council, by Mr Rodolfos Moronis, Executive Director of the Hellenic Audiovisual Institute (IOM). Moronis was elected President of the Observatory for 2010 at the Executive Council’s meeting in Brussels on the 4th of November last year. "We need the Observatory’s facts and figures more than ever in order to make sense of the...
Boulmetis elected president of Hellenic Film Academy
Greek filmmaker Tassos Boulmetis was elected the first president of the newly founded Hellenic Film Academy (HFA). Since there were no other candidates, the honorary post was practically handed out to the director of A Touch of Spice, the first in a series of films that re-ignited local moviegoers’ interest in Greek cinema. In his first, exclusive interview as HFA president, for Cineuropa.org and Greek film blog Movies for the Masses, Boulmetis laid out the demanding tasks ahead of him, his...
Guilds Association attacks Hellenic Film Academy
A vicious attack against the Hellenic Film Academy (HFA) was staged yesterday by the Association of Film Guilds, claiming the Academy is merely part of a greater conspiracy, set in motion to remove guilds from talks with the State on the present and future state of cinema in Greece. Mainly headed by the Hellenic Union of Composers and Songwriters and the Greek Directors’ Guild, the Guilds’ Association was formed in 2007 by representatives from most of the country’s film guilds, in order to...
New Greek film showcase arises from the mist
Previously known as Filmmakers in the Mist and now renamed to FOG (Filmmakers of Greece), the rogue group of filmmakers that decided to boycott the Greek State Awards by keeping their films away from this year’s 50th anniversary of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival [see news], has come back to inaugurate a week of screenings devoted solely to new Greek films, aptly titled Fog Films. Though the recent change in government did spread a breath of optimism in the group’s ranks, FOG do...
Greece - International Film Guide Survey
The number of multiplexes continued to increase in Greece over the last year. However, there was no increase in cinema attendance. One of the main reasons, besides the influence of TV and DVDs, is the way films have been distributed over the last few years. Read the survey published by the International Film Guide: Survey - Greece
Market share rises amidst dropping admissions
Though 2008 ended with a substantial drop of 18% in general admissions, local films managed to stand their ground, thus achieving a slight rise in market share, from last year’s 16.2% to this year’s 19.6%. Out of a total of 9.7 million tickets sold, 1.9 million were for homegrown titles. Mamma Mia!, a US/UK co-production, soared on top of the yearly box office with 625,000 admissions, cashing in on its special charm over local audiences as it was mostly shot in the island of Skiathos. It was...
Arthouse stir in local cinema
What has been dubbed the springtime of Greek cinema has strengthened private funding of local films and encouraged Greek distributors to take risks on local product that would have otherwise relied heavily on state distribution so as to avoid dying an unscreened, straight-to-DVD death, at best. Costas Zapas and his new film Minor Freedoms, a Zentropa Entertainments presentation of a Minus Pictures production, seem to have been favored the most this year. With his third film, the director has...
