27/10/2015 - Twenty local titles will be showcased at Greece’s largest film event, while 14 projects will vie for attention in Agora’s co-production forum

Spring Awakening by Constantine Giannaris (© Penelopy Fatourou)

Headlined by Athina Rachel Tsangari’s recent London Film Festival winner, Chevalier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], 20 local titles will be showcased in this year’s Greek Panorama at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (6-15 November), the country’s largest cinematic gathering.

Former wunderkind Constantine Giannaris, whose latest Man at Sea was greeted with a lukewarm response, returns to familiar social territory with Spring Awakening [+see also:
trailer
film profile], focusing on a gang of teenage thieves hustling their way through Athens, while Alexis Alexiou will showcase his well-travelled, Tribeca-screened neo-noir sophomore feature, Wednesday 04.45 [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Experimental-cinema veteran Angelos Frantzis will showcase his atmospheric horror fairy tail, Symptom, while 2011 FIPRESCI Prize winner Yorgos Gkikapeppas will challenge viewers with his story of a young, talented soprano who mysteriously loses her voice in Silent [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

In addition, Yorgos Zois’ Venice-screened debut, Interruption [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daphné Patakia
interview: Yorgos Zois
film profile], features as a favourite for one of the two slots reserved for local titles in the International Competition section, which comprises debuts and sophomore works, and will announce its selections on 29 October.

Celebrating 70 years of Greek animation, the festival will present an illustrative anthology of 40 short animated films dating from the early 1940s to the present day, along with a round-table discussion on Organised Animation Production.

Meanwhile, 14 projects produced or co-produced by a country in South-Eastern and Central Europe or the Mediterranean area, or containing story elements linked to these regions, will vie for attention in the Agora’s Crossroads co-production forum, and ten further projects will be screened as Works in Progress, competing for a post-production award.