28th Panorama of European Cinema, Athens

With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Greek Film Centre, the Greek National Tourism Organization, the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and the Greek Film Archive cinemas, the 28th Panorama in the beautiful Cinemathèque of Athens proposed more than 50 films from the European and World cinematograph.

Ninos Mikelides promised a beautiful edition and it was a success even if Bertrand Tavernier, highly anticipated for a tribute, was forced to cancel for health reasons. European directors presented their films competing for the awards, including the Fipresci Award, which was given to the hands of Phoebe Ikonomopoulou-Angelopoulou, the widow of Theo Angelopoulos. Twelve new films were presented and appreciated: The Treasure (Comoara) by Corneliu Porumboiu, The Wednesday Child (A Szerdai Gyerek) by Lili Horvathova, Father (Babai) by Visar Morina, Home Care (Domácí Péce) by Slavek Horak, The Shadow of Women (L’ombre des femmes) by Philippe Garrel, The Violators by Helen Walsh, Enclave (Enklava) by Doran Radovanovic, Invisible by Dimitris Athanitis, Impressions of a Drowned Man by Kyros Papavassiliou, The Cypress Deep Down by Nikos Kornilios, Zenaida by Alexis Tsafas and Yannis Fotou and The Reaper (Kosac) by Zvonimir Juric. Greece was represented by four aforementioned movies: Invisible by Dimitri Athanitis, Zenaida by Alexis Tsafas and Yannis Fotou, Impressions of a Drowned Man by Kyros Papavassiliou and The Cypress Deep Down by Nikos Cornelius.

The festival’s program included never before seen films from all over the world, tributes to established directors (from Orson Welles and Bertrand Tavernier, to John Cassavetes and Vassilis Vafeas), and a special tribute to 40 years of the Greek Film Critics Association with members of the Association proposing and prefacing their favorite European films.

Prizes were awarded by the Association of Greek critics to the film by Philippe Garrel, The Shade of Women. The award for best actor went to Giannis Stankoglou for Invisible. The prize of Fipresci was granted by the majority of its jurors (Viktoria Smirnova (Russia), Jean-Max Mejean (France) and Ifigenia Kalantzi (Greece) to The Treasure by the Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu.

A very good festival under the beautiful sun of Athens and its wonders. (Jean-Max Mejean, edited by Steven Yates)

Panorama of European Cinema, Athens: www.panoramafest.org