Greek non-profit creative incubator Oxbelly has revealed the participants of its 2023 retreat for writers in episodic, fiction and poetry.
Founded by producer and Faliro House founder Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Oxbelly is known for its screenwriters and directors labs — which run under the artistic direction of Athina Rachel Tsangari — and draws a number of international filmmakers every summer to Greece. Past participating mentors include Maren Ade, Michael Almereyda, Paul Thomas Anderson, Willem Dafoe, Dee Rees and Lulu Wang.
Advisors for the 2023 program include Barry Jenkins, Rebecca Makkai, Nadifa Mohamed, Sue Naegle, Fiammetta Rocco, Anuradha Roy, Vera Santamaria, Anna Winger, Jörg Winger, Lulu Wang, Graham Yost and Tsangari.
The 2023 writers retreat, which took place in June, was led by program director Chigozie Obioma. The episodic program supported writers interested in entering a career in television by unpacking the many facets of the role of television writer through sessions that included a series of simulated writers room exercises,...
Founded by producer and Faliro House founder Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Oxbelly is known for its screenwriters and directors labs — which run under the artistic direction of Athina Rachel Tsangari — and draws a number of international filmmakers every summer to Greece. Past participating mentors include Maren Ade, Michael Almereyda, Paul Thomas Anderson, Willem Dafoe, Dee Rees and Lulu Wang.
Advisors for the 2023 program include Barry Jenkins, Rebecca Makkai, Nadifa Mohamed, Sue Naegle, Fiammetta Rocco, Anuradha Roy, Vera Santamaria, Anna Winger, Jörg Winger, Lulu Wang, Graham Yost and Tsangari.
The 2023 writers retreat, which took place in June, was led by program director Chigozie Obioma. The episodic program supported writers interested in entering a career in television by unpacking the many facets of the role of television writer through sessions that included a series of simulated writers room exercises,...
- 12/11/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Festival ran November 2-12.
Sofia Exarchou’s Animal has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the first time in 30 years a Greek production has won the top prize.
The film’s lead actress Dimitra Vlagopoulou also won the best actress award ex aequo with Joanna Arnow for US production The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, which she also directed.
Vlagopoulou had previously won best actress at Locarno where the film had its world premiere.
The Greek, Austrian, Romanian, Cypriot, Bulgarian co-production follows a group of women...
Sofia Exarchou’s Animal has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the first time in 30 years a Greek production has won the top prize.
The film’s lead actress Dimitra Vlagopoulou also won the best actress award ex aequo with Joanna Arnow for US production The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, which she also directed.
Vlagopoulou had previously won best actress at Locarno where the film had its world premiere.
The Greek, Austrian, Romanian, Cypriot, Bulgarian co-production follows a group of women...
- 11/15/2023
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
Maria Hatzakou and Alexandra Matheou’s “Stringa,” a female-led folk-horror set in remote rural Greece, won the top prize at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which wrapped with an award ceremony Wednesday.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
- 11/9/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Georgis Grigorakis’ feature debut “Digger,” Greece’s official entry for the Oscars’ international feature film race.
Set in the rich forests of Northern Greece, “Digger” is a modern-day psychological Western starring Vangelis Mourikis as an iconoclastic farmer at war against the encroachments of a ravenous industry and the demons of his past. When his estranged son appears on his doorstep, with a motorcycle and a grudge, nature itself will shake at their clash.
Grigorakis wrote the film, which was produced by Athens-based banner Haos Film. “Digger” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Cicae prize and went on to have a successful career in festivals, including Sarajevo, Thessaloniki and Philadelphia, and won several awards at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards. The movie has also had a strong box office run in Greece.
”We’re thrilled to...
Set in the rich forests of Northern Greece, “Digger” is a modern-day psychological Western starring Vangelis Mourikis as an iconoclastic farmer at war against the encroachments of a ravenous industry and the demons of his past. When his estranged son appears on his doorstep, with a motorcycle and a grudge, nature itself will shake at their clash.
Grigorakis wrote the film, which was produced by Athens-based banner Haos Film. “Digger” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Cicae prize and went on to have a successful career in festivals, including Sarajevo, Thessaloniki and Philadelphia, and won several awards at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards. The movie has also had a strong box office run in Greece.
”We’re thrilled to...
- 11/11/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress, as presented by the creators themselves. At the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Tracks
Logline: A mother waits for the train with her young son. At one point she loses sight of him. The boy is in the tracks. The train is coming. The mother screams.
Elevator Pitch:
The film is based on a true story about a woman whose child got into the train tracks, the train was coming and she started to scream. Then another woman jumped in saved the child but lost her life. It’s set in two different timelines: on one hand we see the young woman from the beginning of her day...
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Tracks
Logline: A mother waits for the train with her young son. At one point she loses sight of him. The boy is in the tracks. The train is coming. The mother screams.
Elevator Pitch:
The film is based on a true story about a woman whose child got into the train tracks, the train was coming and she started to scream. Then another woman jumped in saved the child but lost her life. It’s set in two different timelines: on one hand we see the young woman from the beginning of her day...
- 11/15/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Chevalier
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari // Writers: Efthymis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s arresting sophomore film Attenberg made a powerful impression when it screen at the Venice Film Festival in 2010, cementing her importance as part of the new Greek Weird Wave movement. She’s dabbled here and there since as an executive producer, popped up in Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013), and directed a haunting short in 2012, “The Capsule.” She’s back with her third feature, Chevalier, and pairs with one of the behind-the-scenes names of the cinematic movement, Efthymis Filippou, who wrote three features for Yorgos Lanthimos (including the up and coming The Lobster). The film is about a group of men is returning from a winter fishing trip on a yacht. When a mechanical problem leaves them trapped on their boat, somewhere in the gulf of Saronikos, they will kill their time playing a game they devise called Chevalier.
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari // Writers: Efthymis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s arresting sophomore film Attenberg made a powerful impression when it screen at the Venice Film Festival in 2010, cementing her importance as part of the new Greek Weird Wave movement. She’s dabbled here and there since as an executive producer, popped up in Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013), and directed a haunting short in 2012, “The Capsule.” She’s back with her third feature, Chevalier, and pairs with one of the behind-the-scenes names of the cinematic movement, Efthymis Filippou, who wrote three features for Yorgos Lanthimos (including the up and coming The Lobster). The film is about a group of men is returning from a winter fishing trip on a yacht. When a mechanical problem leaves them trapped on their boat, somewhere in the gulf of Saronikos, they will kill their time playing a game they devise called Chevalier.
- 1/7/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sundance World Dramatic Comp programmers have been strong supporters of new Greek cinema, and especially welcoming towards Athina Rachel Tsangari who has technically been present for four straight years. In 2011, Attenberg landed at the fest’s Spotlight section, in 2012 she was a Creative Advisor for the Directors Lab, in 2013 her short The Capsule was included and finally in 2014 she was part of the cast make-up of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. If it could land a coveted Premieres category launchpad, it could be raining men with Tsangari’s Chevalier bypassing a spot at say heavyweights fests such as Cannes or Venice. It’s a longshot.
Gist: Written by Efthimis Filippou and Tsangari, this is about a group of men is returning from a winter fishing trip on a yacht. When a mechanical problem leaves them trapped on their boat, somewhere in the gulf of Saronikos, they will kill their time playing...
Gist: Written by Efthimis Filippou and Tsangari, this is about a group of men is returning from a winter fishing trip on a yacht. When a mechanical problem leaves them trapped on their boat, somewhere in the gulf of Saronikos, they will kill their time playing...
- 11/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
#04. Alps Director: Giorgos LanthimosWriter(s): Lanthimos and Efthimis FilippouProducers: Maria Hatzakou and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg)Distributor: Rights Available. The Gist: This is the story of a hospital night nurse who provides peculiar services to families that have lost their loved ones. She is part of a group called Alpis, whose members offer, for a certain fee, to replace the recently deceased in their random everyday exchanges with the mourning families.....(more) Cast: Aggeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth) and Ariane Labed (Attenberg) List Worthy Reasons...: The most bizarre, wackiest and fascinating films of 2009 re-introduced us to Greek cinema and a filmmaker we hadn't heard of in Lanthimos. A stellar debut with Dogtooth means we are looking forward to his next offering -- which I'm sure will continue in the same unique and obscure tone. Stars Dogtooth alumni and Venice-winner for Best Actress in Ariane Labed. Release Date/Status?: Logically...
- 1/18/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
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