It started three years ago in Vovousa, a small and historic village of Eastern Zagori, Northern Greece, and it is the only festival of its kind in the country. Vovousa Festival will last till August 8 and apart from the main program with exhibitions and film screenings, parallel events are carried out, such as concerts, workshops, residency programs from Greece and abroad, text readings, performances, and much more. 

The theme of the festival, which runs its 3rd edition, focuses on the mountain altitude, nature conservation through sustainable development and is dedicated to youth, photography, video art and cinematography. Through a series of events and workshops for children, aimed particularly at other than the community of art lovers, families are given the opportunity to take advantage of an alternative destination, a rural one where mountains and rivers predominate.

The Screenings programme will present a tribute to filmmaker Dimitris Koutsiabasakos, who has dedicated much of his filmmaking career to the exploration of northern landscapes around Greece. The festival will screen The Grocer (Greece, 2013), Heracles, Acheloos and My Granny (Greece, 1997, 30΄), Hill 33 (Greece, 1998, 43΄) and The Guardian΄s Son (Greece, 2006). 

Vovousa΄s collaboration with the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, allows the audience to watch docs about the history of Northern Greece, like Stavros Psyllakis΄ Chroma (Greece, 2014, 29΄), Mythogenesis by Nikos Panoutsopoulos (Greece, 2014, 29΄), About the end of the World by Yiannis Misouridis (Greece, 2013, 56΄), Ioannina of Contemplation & Legends by Panos Kyparisis & Fanis Douskos (Greece, 2013, 73΄), Kalavryta – People and Shadows by Elias Giannakakis (Greece, 2014) and Dioni by Thanos Psichogios (Greece, 2014, 16’). 

Exile Room, the Greek-based NGO combining documentary screenings with workshops and lectures is collaborating with Vovousa screening animation & documentary compilations for children from 5 years up and films about protecting the environment, activism and the consequences of human intervention. From the programme, we single out Weerner Herzog΄s exhilarating Encounters at the End of the World (USA, 2007) and Louie Psihoyos΄ The Cove (USA, 2009).  

The Screenings section also includes three documentaries from German filmmaker Karl Gras and series of films for kids and adults focusing on friendship, loneliness and the beauty of nature, with the support of the Norwegian Embassy and the Norwegian Institute in Athens. 

The Photography programme will present renown Greek photographer Costas Balafas΄ photo exhibition The resistance movement in Epirus, 1941-1944. Swiss photographer Frédéric Boissonnas΄ Mount Olympus is also programmed, along a number of modern Greek photographers.

Other activites in this year΄s festival include the Workshops programme, covering topics like photoshop, photography, animation, an introduction to documentary with Dimitris Koutsiabasakos, creative writing and astronomy, music events with traditional and modern melodies, a Residency programme with two international artists invited to produce material related to their stay in the area, a photo contest for amateur and professional photographers, as well as a Lectures section on nature, photography, animation, landcsape and literature, presented by photographers, curators, animators, writers, chemists and olive oil lovers.