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AWARDS Greece

Economidis’ Knifer slices through competition at Hellenic Film Academy honours

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Acclaimed Cypriot director Yiannis Economidis’ take on modern-day film noir, Knifer, was crowned the top winner at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards ceremony last night, taking home seven prizes, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Feature.

The black-and-white film about a no-good power plant worker who moves into his uncle’s house after his father dies, only to tear his benefactor’s life apart, came into the ceremony with nine nominations, but was regarded as the dark horse against international festival favorites like Venice titles Homeland [+see also:
trailer
film profile
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(12 nominations) and Attenberg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Athina Rachel Tsangari
film profile
]
(four nominations).

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In what proved to be quite the nail biter, Knifer and Homeland went head to head during the ceremony and even shared the Best Editing Award in an unprecedented split between all three nominees, including Sotiris Goritsas’ satire of Greece’s public health care system, Ap’ ta Kokkala Vgalmena (“Coming from the Bones”).

Goritsas’ return to form came out of the ceremony with three awards, also winning both male acting categories, for Argiris Xafis (Best Actor) and Dimtris Imellos (Best Supporting Actor).

Homeland’s sweep peaked when helmer Syllas Tzoumerkas went on stage to collect the Best Directorial Debut award, rounding up the film’s total of five prizes, including Best Score, Best Make-up and Best Supporting Actress for Ioanna Tsirigkouli.

The Best Actress prize went to Venice-awarded Ariane Labed for her haunting performance in Attenberg, which has also been selected by the Academy as Greece’s submission for 2012 Oscar consideration.

Though a refreshing night of celebration, the Academy’s second year of awards was marked by the recurring event of massive abstention from the nomination procedure (almost 50% of its members didn’t vote) and an unsettling amount of ties, which resulted in six out of 16 categories having more than the established three nominees.

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