“Animal” by Sofia Exarchos won the festival’s grand prize, while “Fonissa” by Eva Nathena also received several awards.
In a moving atmosphere, the awards of the 64th Thessaloniki Film Festival were awarded at noon on Sunday, November 12, at Warehouse C΄. As cinema is changing, this year the Festival has also changed the way it gives its awards, holding the award ceremony in Warehouse C΄, in daylight and with a friendlier mood.
The jury of the International Competition section, through the president and producer Diana Elbaum, thanked the organizers of the Festival from the podium for the excellent experience of the organization and emphasized how important the work of female directors is. “We would like to recommend that the Festival rename the Golden Alexander to Alexandra,” said Diana Elbaum, referring to this year’s award.
The Best Film Award – Golden Alexander “Theodoros Angelopoulos”, which comes with a cash prize of 10,000 euros, was awarded by Elina Psykou. “Personally, I am very happy that after 30 years Chrysos Alexandros is going again to a Greek film, the last time was in 1993 (s.s. From the snow of Sotiris Goritsa)”, said the committee member, director Elina Psykou. He then announced that the Best Film Award – Golden Alexander “Theodoros Angelopoulos” was awarded to the film: ANIMAL of Sophia Exarchou. Producer Maria Drandaki said, accepting the award: “I want to thank the Festival again for the wonderful hospitality, the committee – it’s great to receive the award from these three people. You understand how great a pleasure it is to be awarded in the international section of a festival that is in your country. This movie was a huge adventure, it had incredible ups and downs and a lot of evil people who tried to stop it, but it also had a lot of positives. He had this whole team that you saw in Olympia and Sofia Exarchou, who with inexhaustible energy brought this titanic project to fruition. I want, of course, to thank everyone. The film will be released in January and I hope it will be embraced by the public as it was here.”
Sofia Exarchou said, receiving the award: “Thank you to the Festival for this experience. I thank the committee for the honor of giving me the award. I want to dedicate this to all my collaborators, producers, contributors who were valuable and helped me make the film. I am very happy and moved to receive this award here, in Thessaloniki, at my most favorite festival in the world, where I have been coming for so many years to see films and learn about cinema, before I even dared to say to myself that I want to do I movies”.
The committee’s rationale:
The committee was impressed by the Animal and from the non-stereotypical depiction of a Greek island in summer, as well as the unseen artists who are there to entertain tourists. This polyphonic film encapsulates the feeling of finding a sense of family, love, but above all sadness.
The Director Award – Silver Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 5,000 euros, supported by COSMOTE TV, Major Sponsor of the Festival, was awarded by Elina Psykou to the film:
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME HAS PASSED FOR SOMETHING TO BE DONE / by Joanna Arnow.
The Female Performance Award was awarded in half-time by Elina Psykou to:
DIMITRA VLAGOPOULOU for the movie ANIMAL and JOANNA ARNOW for the movie THE FEELING HOW THE TIME HAS ALREADY PASSED FOR IT TO BE DONE
The Male Performance Award was awarded by Elina Psykou to:
KOSTA KORONAIO for his performance in the film THE LAST TAXI DRIVER of Stergios Paschos
Stergios Paschos, director of the film, accepted the award on behalf of Kostas Koronaios, thanking the committee. As he said: “Thank you very much to Kostas and all the actors of the film. I thank the casting department of the film, because it is important, it is fifty percent of the work. I welcome the initiative of the Festival to remove the awards from the closing ceremony, thus shedding light more on the films, rather than on the distinctions and competitiveness from which our space too often suffers.”
The Screenplay Award was awarded by Elina Psykou to the film:
THE LOST BOYS by Zeno Graton, Belgium-France, 2023
MEET THE NEIGHBORS+ AWARDS
The expanded Meet the Neighbors+ competition section, which includes first or second films from the 36 countries of South-Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, is being upgraded this year with more prizes to be awarded. At the same time, the department’s Golden Alexander is renamed “Michel Dimopoulos” Golden Alexander, honoring the memory of the Festival’s director (1991-2005), who led the institution to its internationalization. The Best Film Award – Golden Alexander “Michel Dimopoulos”, which comes with a cash prize of 10,000 euros, was presented by Cedric Suchivali to the film AMA GLORIA by Marie Amatsoukeli, France, 2023
The Directing Award – Silver Alexander, which is accompanied by a cash prize of 5,000 euros, was awarded to the film:NOTES ON A SUMMER by Diego Llorente, Spain, 2023
The Female Performance Award was awarded to I AM HAWA for her performance in the film BOY, GLORY TO GOD / INSHALLAH A BOY by Amjad Al Rashid, Jordan-France-Saudi Arabia-Qatar, 2023
The Male Performance Award was awarded half-way to RICHARD LANGTON for his performance in the film WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN by Maciey Hlupacek and SOMA SANTOR for his performance in the film SUFFOCATION / WITHOUT AIR by the Hungarian Katalin Moldovai
The Artistic Achievement Award went to the film MURDERESS / MURDERESS of Eva Nathena, Greece, 2023
FILM FORWARD AWARDS
Silver Alexander: All Dirt Roads Taste Salt by Raven Jackson and Dawn of Man 3 by Edward Williams
Gold Alexander: Samsara by Lois Patinio
The rest of the awards in detail were:
PUBLIC AWARDS
International Contest: Humanitarian Vampire Seeks Suicidal Man by Ariane Louis-Sez
Greek Film Festival: The summer of Carmen by Zacharias Mavroides
Open Horizons: A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes by Gedian Kochi
Meet the Neighbors: Murderer of Eva Nathena
Film Forward: Caterpillar Nymph Butterfly of Kyros Papavasileiou
CREW UNITED AWARD
Animal by Sofia Exarchou
WIFT.GR AWARD
All Dirt Roads Taste Like Salt by Raven Jackson
PEKK AWARD
The Last Taxi Driver of Stergios Paschos
FIPRESCI AWARD
International Competition In the Lens of Nakas Kalinda
Greek Film Festival: Murderer of Eva Nathena
UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI STUDENT YOUTH AWARD
Best movie: The summer of Carmen by Zacharias Mavroides
Committee Award: Nicolai Hamel’s rhapsode
FINOS FILM AWARD Murderer of Eva Nathena
IOANNO F. KOSTOPOYLOS FOUNDATION AWARD
Polydroso by The Boy
GREEK CINEMA CENTER AWARD LOCATION MANAGER
Petros Chytiris for “Little things that went wrong” by Haris Vafiadis
GREEK FILM CENTER PRIZE FOR FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR
Murderer of Eva Nathena
GREEK RADIO TELEVISION AWARD
Murderer of Eva Nathena
GREEK RADIO TELEVISION ORIGINAL MUSIC AWARD
Yiannis Konsolakis for “Dolls of Dresden” by Alexis Tsafa and
Nikos Veliotis- Dimitris Karyofyllis for the Caterpillar Nymph Butterfly of Kyros Papavasileiou
BRABIO “HUMAN VALUES” OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT
Fingernails by Christos Nikos
SMART AWARD7
India by Telmo Churro
ALPHA BANK ACCESSIBILITY AWARD
Stavros Zafeiris for “Touch” by Claudia Rorarius
COMPETITIVE PODCAST DIVISION
Special mention: As long as it lasts, I’ll be by my side! of Dafni Anestis, Danai Dragoneas
Best Podcast: Persistence of Memory by Courtney Hope Therod
MERMAID AWARD
Carmen’s summer by Zacharias Mavroides
COMPETITIVE DEPARTMENT MEET THE NEIGHBORS+
Artistic Achievement or Screenplay Award: Eva Nathena’s killer
Female Performance Award: Muna Hawa for ‘Boy, Thank God’ by Amjad Al Rashid
Male Performance Award:: Richard Langdon for “We Were Never Modern” by Mackie Hlupacek and Soma Sandor for “Suffocation” by Katalin Moldovai
Silver Alexander: Notes of a Summer by Diego Llorente
Chrysos Alexandros – Michel Dimopoulos: Ama Gloria by Marie Amatsoukeli
