Event Category: Τρέχουσες

Greek Cinema as You’ve Never Seen It Before

15 September – 20 October 2026

Some films we know by heart. Others are still waiting to be discovered. The Hellenic Film Academy invites audiences to see Greek cinema again, through a series of screenings featuring more than 50 fiction films and documentaries, from the 1950s to the present day, in Athens, Chania, Larissa, Patras, Rethymno, Thessaloniki, Veria and Volos.

The “rediscovered” here does not mean a return to the past, nor nostalgia. It means re-examination: a film is never exactly the same when we see it again, it changes along with us, with the times, with all that we have by now experienced. Under this new prism, the Hellenic Film Academy reintroduces films that are familiar as well as
overlooked.

The curation was undertaken by six people from different areas of cinema, each with their own perspective and point of departure. The screenings are organised into five thematic sections:

Film critic and Head of Programming of the Thessaloniki Film and Documentary Festival, Yorgos Krassakopoulos, curates the section Mirror/Image, Greek and European films in pairs. Afroditi Nikolaidou, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, presents Athens in the 1990s and 2000s: A City in Between?, with films that record the transformation of the city during the years of the crisis. Dionyssis Samiotis, producer at Tanweer Productions, curates Box Office, the biggest commercial successes of Greek cinema. Actors Marisha Triantafyllidou and Eva Samioti co-sign Fatherland–Religion–Family: We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made on, centred around Greek identity. And screenwriter and author Efthymis Filippou presents Them, Then., with groundbreaking films from five decades.

Six perspectives, five sections, 50+ films, five different ways of seeing Greek cinema again and again.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL CATALOGUE (GR & EN)

WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER

The initiative is being implemented with the support of the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (EKKOMED), as part of the organisation of the 39th European Film Awards 2027 ceremony in Athens.

A New International Initiative by the Hellenic Film Academy

In the lead-up to the 2026 Iris Awards, the Hellenic Film Academy is launching
Iris Close-Up, a new public programme of conversations and masterclasses
featuring some of the most compelling voices in contemporary international
cinema.
Conceived as a platform for dialogue, inspiration and exchange, Iris Close-Up
expands the scope of the Iris Awards beyond the annual award ceremony, creating
opportunities for meaningful encounters between Greek and European film
professionals, while strengthening the international visibility of Greek
filmmaking.
The 2026 edition is part of a wider cultural programme leading up
to the European Film Awards – Athens 2027, which will bring Europe’s most
prestigious film event to the Greek capital in January 2027. Iris Close-Up and
a series of forthcoming initiatives are included in a broader programme
developed by the Hellenic Film Academy in collaboration with and supported
by the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (EKKOMED), the organisation
responsible for hosting the European Film Awards in Greece.

The inaugural edition of Iris Close-Up welcomes two exceptional and
internationally acclaimed European artists: filmmaker Anna Hints and actress
Vicky Krieps, who will each present a masterclass at Onassis Stegi on
Tuesday, 16 June. Admission is free to the public.

ANNA HINTS
Creative Fire
What does it take to create work that burns with passion, and how can you
keep that fire alive without burning out?
Anna Hints, director of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood—winner of Best Director at
Sundance and the European Film Academy Award for Best Documentary
2023—joins us for an intimate moderated conversation about the inner life of
a filmmaker. From the rituals and silences that feed creativity, to the cost of
radical vulnerability on screen, Anna reflects on how to stay creatively alive in a world that demands constant output. Moderated by: Leda Galanou, film critic (Flix.gr)

→ WATCH THE MASTERCLASS (video)

VICKY KRIEPS
Silence
Multiple award-winning actress Vicky Krieps —Best Actress at Cannes and at
the European Film Awards for Corsage— invites us into the quiet spaces
where she has always felt most at home.
“As a young film enthusiast and later young acting student I always felt more
drawn to the furniture, the landscape, the animals, the sky & the light rather
than the actor, the dialogue or the performance and I always wondered why.
Like in ‘La Belle et la Bête’ from Cocteau; the most intriguing thing to me were
the moving hands in the wall. And then I realised: it was because they were
silent. Because something was able to travel, something was conveyed in this
space where we (the people) forget what it is about, where it is happening or
why. Quietly watching from the sidelines.”

→ WATCH THE MASTERCLASS (video)

Venue
Onassis Stegi
107 Syngrou Avenue, Athens

Admission
Free admission with advance registration:
https://tickets.onassis.org/en/Organizer/sgt/Portal

Both masterclasses will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation
into Greek.

An insider view of Greek cinema.

The Film Factory is the most vibrant and successful educational initiative of the Hellenic Film Academy: two days filled with masterclasses and open conversations with the creators behind the year’s award-winning films.

Its protagonists are the professionals honored at the IRIS Awards each year — directors, actors, editors, cinematographers, composers, sound designers, costume designers, producers, and many more. Through real case studies, they share the journey of each film: from the first idea to its realization and its encounter with audiences in Greece and abroad.

More than a series of workshops, Film Factory is a meeting point and a space of connection for the people of Greek cinema — an open environment of knowledge, interaction, and inspiration.

FILM FACTORY 2025 | December 19, 20 & 21 | Greek Film Archive

The protagonists of the masterclasses are film professionals who were awarded at the 2025 Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy, covering the full spectrum of cinematic creation: Screenwriting, Directing, Production and International Co-production, Cinematography, Acting, Music, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound, Special and Visual Effects, across fiction films, documentaries, and animation.

Among the parallel activities of the 14th Film Factory is also a special masterclass, in collaboration with Blink GFE, focusing on the editing of the film Electra7. The film is a production of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the Hellenic Film Academy, with the kind sponsorship of DEI / PPC.

Alexandros Voulgaris, Sofia Exarchou, Neritan Zinxhiria, Christina Ioakeimidis, Babis Makridis, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, and Elina Psykou directed one of the seven chapters of the script written by Panagiotis Christopoulos, drawing inspiration from Sophocles’ Electra.

Screenwriter Panagiotis Christopoulos, editors Giorgos Mavropsaridis and Stamos Dimitropoulos, and director Neritan Zinxhiria reveal the creative process behind Electra7 and discuss cinema as an act of writing. During the discussion, different versions of the film’s edit will be screened.

The day will conclude with a masterclass on the “Language of Spaces” by Giota Skouvaras, location manager of Electra7.

Alongside its educational character, Film Factory serves as a vital space for the exchange of knowledge and ideas among film creators, with the ultimate goal of fostering encounters and connections between established professionals of Greek cinema and the younger generation of colleagues, contributing to the strengthening of the country’s film community.

Around the world in 30 short films.

Each year, more than 30 Film Academies from around the globe select the best short film from their country. The result is a rare collection of award-winning film gems that travels to major cities and is screened free of charge.

From the Césars to the Oscars and from the IRIS to the Goyas, the Nuits en Or (Golden Nights) is an international initiative that brings to the big screen the most powerful short stories – films that stand out for their vision, boldness, and cinematic language.

The Hellenic Film Academy hosts the Golden Nights in Athens, connecting Greek short films with the international community and opening a window to the world, an initiative for everyone who cherishes the few minutes that stay with us forever.

To strengthen young audiences’ connection with contemporary Greek cinema, the Hellenic Film Academy partners with the Athens Children’s Film Festival, hosting an annual screening within the festival’s program. The event features recent films by Greek creators that explore themes relevant to children and young people, followed by open discussions between the audience and the filmmakers.

 In 2025, the short film MJ by Giorgos Fourtounis was screened, followed by a discussion with the director and the audience. Subsequently, the Hellenic Film Academy was represented by Vicky Micha in a panel discussion on how Greece can become more actively integrated into the European network of children’s and youth cinema. This is a sector that has been experiencing strong international growth in recent years, yet remains underrepresented in Greece.