Unfair World tops third annual Hellenic Film Academy awards

by Joseph Proimakis

08/05/2012 - Although a favorite at the nominations stage, Unfair World’s win was a close call yesterday evening, at the Hellenic Film Academy’s third annual awards. Filippos Tsitos’s follow-up to festival favorite Plato's Academy [trailer, film focus] (2009) was tapped with 11 noms out of the Academy’s 15 categories, but only managed to come on top in four. The film took home Best Supporting Actor for Hristos Stergioglou, Best Actor for Antonis Kafetzopoulos (photo), Best Directing for Tsitos and Best Film for producers Tsitos and Alexandra Boussiou.

Giorgos Gigapeppas’s debut feature The City of Children proved to be the evening’s surprise. The film was first screened at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival last November, were it won both local and international critics’ awards. It went on to pick up the awards for Best Visual Effects and Cinematic Innovation, Best Actress for Kika Georgiou and Best Screenplay.

Gikapeppas’ screenplay win was the event’s greatest upset, with City of Children edging out Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou’s Venice-awarded screenplay for Alps [trailer], which went home empty handed. Kika Georgiou’s Best Actress win was also unexpected, with the category having been considered a face-off between vets Theodora Tzimou and Ioanna Tsirigouli of Unfair World and Burning Heads respectively.

Burning Heads, Yorgos Siouga’s feature debut and also a nominations favorite with 11 gongs, was the evening’s biggest loser. The film only picked up Best Make-up while its director lost the Best Newcomer award to Ilias Dimitrious’s work for Fish ‘n’ Chips, a UK-Greece-Cyprus co-production.

The closest film to being a studio-entry, Nikos Koutelidakis’s period film Christmas Tango, won Original Score, Costume Design and Set Design categories, while Panayiotis Fafoutis’s Paradise was awarded Best Sound and Best Supporting Actress for Olia Lazaridou. Constantine Giannaris’s Berlin-screened Man At Sea took home the Best Cinematography award, while Wasted Youth was handed Best Editing and Hristos Karakepelis’s Raw Material was branded Best Documentary.