The anniversary edition of the
Athens International Film Festival - Opening Nights comes from today till the
28th of September will screen the record number of
241 films - over
100 feature films from all over the world, three competition sections, special tributes, documentaries and more than
60 homegrown shorts. The official lineup will be accompanied by a series of sidebar events, including workshops and lectures.
Festival Director Orestis Andreadakis
23 premieres features Athens IFF 2014, among them Alain Resnais΄ last film
Life Of Riley, Abel Ferrara’s
Welcome to New York, Yann Demange΄s political thriller
‘71, the awarded in
Cannes ‘14 The Wonders by Alice Rohrwacher, David Mackenzie’s
Starred Up,
Tribeca’s Best Debut winner Josef Kubota Wladyka with
Manos Sucias and
When Animals Dream by Nar Dyrene Drommer, a Cannes ‘14 contender.
The International Competition section, which hosts some of the most eagerly awaited films in the festival circuit will present 11 debut, second or third feature films from Europe, North and Latin America -competing for the Golden Athena Award.
The other big section of the festival, the Music and Film Competition section will present 7 documentaries, also competing for the Golden Athena Award. Titles to mention are the Nick Cave-centered 20.000 Days on Earth by Iain Forsyth/Jane Pollard and Life Itself by Steve James on the life and times of critic Roger Ebert, while the Special Screenings section are set to show -among others- a digitally restored print of the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, supervised by Tobe Hooper himself and Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut, Parts I & II. Panorama section is presenting 11 international films distinguished in major festivals.
Athens International Film Festival - Opening NIghts this year’s program goes on, this time paying homage to Robert Altman with a tribute to his most influential 70’s classics, to legendary Polish auteur Andrzej Zulawski, with a full retrospective of his frenzy works, and to Greek outcast Stavros Tornes – making again the
Tributes & Retrospectives section one of the highlights of the festival.
On the sidebar events, there are two singling out: a
Networking Brunch were festival guests Oliver Baumgarten (Berlinale) and Christian Jeune (Cannes) will meet Greek producers, directors and distributors to discuss the journey of homegrown films abroad and share insight on how to achieve a successful festival run. Second, the
New Media and Low Budget Filmmaking masterclass, in which cinematographers
Giannis Daskalothanasis and
Christos Alexandris will reveal their trade secrets in a special presentation -in collaboration with the
Greek Society of Cinematographers- on low budget filmmaking and how to make a film of minimum cost by taking advantage of the latest technology.
Returning to the local productions, The Greek Shorts Competition section, organized for the third year in a row, is of particular interest, offering young filmmakers the chance to present their work and claim awards. 65 of these filmmaker’s shorts will compete for one of 5 the awards, including the new Best Cinematography Award given by the Greek Society of Cinematographers.
6 Greek feature films will be introduced to the local audiencea at the festival:
4 new Greek documentaries will be also presented:
3 Works in Progress:
2 Greek co-productions feature also at Panorama section:
Red Rose by Sepideh Farsi, France/Greece/Iran, 2014
The 20th edition of Athens IFF will officialy open with another premiere, Wild Tales by Damian Szifron and will draw curtains with David Fincher’s latest Gone Girl, 48 hours after its New York world premiere.
