The ceremony was held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater, capping a week of screenings, seminars and social events. Stand-up comedian Anthony Steven Kalloniatis, aka ANT, opened the awards ceremony, and network warm-up host Chuck Dukas served as MC for the evening. 

An honorary Orpheus award was given to George Chakiris, the Greek-American actor who won best supporting actor for “West Side Story”. Rita Moreno, his famous co-star from the movie, presented Chakiris with the award. The theme of the night was Academy of Greeks, as the festival paid tribute to Greeks in the film industry who have been nominated for or won Academy Awards since 1935. Elia Kazan, Costa-Gavras, Dean Tavoularis, Vangelis, George Miller, Alexander Payne, Olympia Doukakis and Alexandre Desplat were among those honored during the evening.

This year the festival hosted 50 films. 11 features, 13 documentaries and 26 shorts. Out of them 6 films won the current awards.

After a week of seminars, panels and films, LAGFF screened Perfect Strangers to close out the festival. Thodoris Atheridis took home the best feature direction award for the film in which seven friends at a dinner party play a game that compels them to reveal the content of their mobile phones as calls and text arrive, thus peeling away their secrets and threatening their relationships. 

Historical drama Polyxeni directed by Dora Masclavanou, a movie about an orphan girl from Istanbul, won the Orpheus Award for best fiction feature film. Katia Goulioni won the Orpheus for best performance for the playing title character.

The Orpheus for best documentary went to Dolphin Man, by Lefteris Charitos, which tells the story of free-diver Jacques Mayol, whose life inspired Luc Besson’s cult movie The Big Blue.

Golden Dawn Girls, by Norwegian director, Havard Bustnes, received an honorable mention for documentary. The disturbing film probes deep into the far-right Greek political party Golden Dawn.

Director Tassos Boulmetis received a special jury award for his 1968, a documentary enhanced with re-creations that uses a championship basketball game in Athens as a prism though which we view a mashup of the history of modern Greece and the political violence of that year. The film also won the audience award for best documentary.

The Last Note by the legendary director Pantelis Voulgaris won the Audience Award for Best Feature. The film is based on the execution of 200 Greek political prisoners in reprisal for the killing of a German general by Greek partisans in 1944.

Goldfish by Yorgos Angelopoulos won for best short film. This short film enquire into the life of a young boy who things that his new goldfish is gay, much to the horror of his conservative father.

The Audience Award for Short Film went to Still, directed by Mavra Peponis. This short film examines Athina who arrives on the Greek island of Skyros to clear out the summer house where she lived with her dead informal partner.

Now in its sixth edition, the International Project Discovery Forum (IPDF) is a Los Angeles pioneer in the promotion of international independent film development. Utilizing the innumerable resources that exist in Los Angeles, it aims to create a bridge between two very different worlds – those of American and Greek/Balkan independent cinema. This year, 3 films out of 6 selected projects standed out in this section.

Balaur by writer and director Octav Chelaru and producer Radu Stancu won the Aegean Award. The film depicts the strange relation between the teacher Mrs Ivanovici and her student, while her monotonous marriage with an older priest crumbles.

Prometheus a film about a leftist doctor who begins a frantic 10-year coure to achieve the acknowledgement of the political leadership he believes he deserves in the third year of military dictatorship. Writer and director of the film Yorgos Fourtounis won the MFI Scholarship.

Writer and director Nasos Gatzoulis won an honorable mention about Two Raccoons. The film focus on two raccoon trash thieves who are coerced in a dangerous mission.