30/09/2013 - The Rendez-vous of Déjà-Vu takes script, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors picks up directing; Les Chants des Ondes and Short Term 12 also winners

The French won big at the 19^th edition of the Athens International Film Festival, picking up three of the fest’s five competition awards Sunday night. Yann Gonzales’ Critics’ Week-screened feature debut, Les Rencontres d’ Après Minuit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo), a surreal recount of an orgy, came out on top by winning the Golden Athena for Best Film.

Antonin Peretjatko’s The Rendez-vous of Déjà-Vu [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (read the interview of the director), also a feature debut and an homage to Jean Luc Goddard which screened at the Directors’ Fortnight, picked up the Best Screenplay award.

Carolin Martel was handed the Golden Athena for Best Film of the fest’s Music and Film section, for Les Chants des Ondes, an account of the construction of a little-known musical instrument dubbed Marteno’s Wavemaker.

The Americans also got their share of accolades: Sam Fleischner’s Tribecca-screened Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, following an autistic teenager in the streets of New York, picked up the Best Director prize; Destin Cretton’s SXSW winner Short Term 12, about a 20-something foster care employee and the troubled waters of her work, won the Audience Award.

The audience gave the festival its biggest award, by raising admissions by 10% in comparison to last year’s turn-up: theatres were jam-packed during the weekends, while the Greek films got their share of love, by having most screenings sold out beforehand.

Festival director Orestis Andreadakis was also honoured during the festival, with the French Embassy and the French Institute of Athens anointing him Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, thus joining the ranks of William S Burroughs, Tim Burton and Shakira, to name a few.