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FESTIVALS AND CULTURAL EVENTSby R. Kaftantzoglou, Researcher, National Center of Social Research

and DespinaMouzaki, Director of the Thessaloniki International Film festival

Linked to tourism and a warm climate that allows cultural eventsto be held in open-air spaces, festivals in Greece have for manydecades been an integral part of the country’s culture and economy.In recent years, festivals have ceased to be the exclusive prerogativeof Athens and the GreekNational TourismOrganization (GNTO). Allover the country, municipal authorities in collaboration withcultural centres and other agents have established festive culturalevents in countless smaller towns and villages. Themajority of fes-tivals in Greece are held during the summer months in open-airspaces, ancient theatres or specially created installations at sitesof particular historic and aesthetic interest.

Odeion of Herode Atticus

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The oldest and best-known festivalis the Athens Festival, organized bythe cultural department of theGNTOandhosted at the theatres ofHerod Atticus and Lycabettus inAthens aswell as in Epidaurus. TheFestival runs from June to the endof September. In Athens, the Fes-tival held in the 5,000-seat Romantheatre of Herod Atticus below theAcropolis has been an annualevent since 1955. Initially plannedto host ancient Greek drama andmusic performances, over the yearsit has extended its programme toincludemodern and contemporarytheatre,music and dance. The the-atre of Herode Atticus, offering abreathtaking view of the lit-upParthenon, hashosted someof thegreatest performers, orchestrasandartistic companies fromaroundthe world. These include MariaCallas, Leonard Bernstein, MtislavRostropovich, DavidOistrach, Yehu-di Menuhin, Colin Davis, the Bol-shoi Ballet companies, the BerlinerEnsemble, the National Theatre ofGreat Britain, the NetherlandsDanceTheatre, theDanceCompany

of Pina Bausch and many others.Since 1996, the Acropolis hasbeenopen to the public on every sum-mer evening with a full moon andvisitors can listen to concerts on thesite.

The Lycabettus Festival, operatingsince 1964 in a setting designedby the innovative architect T. Zene-tos on the hill of Lycabettus, initial-ly concentrated on performancesof ancient Greekdrama. The venuewas renovated in 1977 and sincethen, as part of the Athens Festi-val, hosts theatrical and danceevents and music with more em-phasis on rock, pop, jazz andethnicmusic, from June to the endof September.

The first modern-day artist to ap-pear at the 4th centuryBC theatre ofEpidaurus,which seats 14,000andis internationally renowned for itsbeauty and excellent acoustics,was the great conductor DimitriMitropoulos in 1935; three years lat-er the first contemporary perform-ance of Greek drama was held

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there. Since 1954, the EpidaurusTheatre has hosted performancesof ancient drama and musicalevents featuring internationallyrenowned artists such as MariaCallas, Monserrat Caballe, MtislavRostropovich, the Berlin Philar-monic Orchestra of Berlin conduct-ed byHerbertVon Karajan, and theOrchestra and Choir of La Scala ofMilan conductedbyClaudioAbado.Next to the theatre of Epidaurus is“Small Epidaurus,” a recently exca-vated ancient theatre that hasbeenhosting musical performances or-ganized by the AthensConcert Hallsince 1995.

Anumberof festivals that takeplacein the vicinity of Athens during thesummer are organised by culturalcentres and municipal authorities.These include theKrystalleia,namedafter the poet K. Krystallis and heldat the 19th century mansion of theDuchess of Plaisance in Pendeli,which offers performances of con-temporaryGreekandclassicalmusic.Inaddition, there is theFestivalatVy-ronas, held in the Melina Mercouri

Theatre in an abandoned quarrysince 1987, whose programme in-cludesperformancesofancientdra-ma, contemporaryGreekmusicanddance. The Aeschyleia in the city ofEleusis should also be mentioned.Ithostsancientdrama,contemporarydance and theatre, art exhibitionsand variousmusical events.

The Festival at the ByzantineMonastery of Kaisariani hosts con-certs, the Festival of Chalandri fo-cuses on theatre and music, theVeakeioTheatre in Piraeus ismainlydedicated to dance. On Philopap-pos Hill opposite the Acropolis, anopen-air theatre hosts perform-ances of Greek dance featuringtraditional costumes by the DoraStratou singers and dancers fromMay to September. In autumn, aPanorama of European Cinema,organized by the newspaper Eleft-herotypia, and a Cinema Festival,organised by the periodical Cine-ma, are held in Athens.

Thessaloniki is the seat of the In-ternational Film Festival, themajor

Epidaurus Ancient Theater

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annual cinematic event in Greece,whichmade its debut in 1960 as aGreek film festival and establisheda separate international section in1966. After a series of changes inits structure dictated by politicaland social factors, the Festival as-serted its international profile in1992. It is held every autumn. TheDemetria Festival, also in Thessa-loniki, hosts theatrical, musical,dance and operatic performancesbyGreekand foreign companies aswell as lectures, exhibitions andsymposia. The venues for theseevents are distributed throughoutthe city. In the town of Kalamata,the International Documentary FilmFestival is held every October.

Many of the festivals in other partsand towns of Greece have gainedgreat renown and popularity overthe last years; some of them focuson particular formsof artwhile oth-ers offer a variety of performances.These include the Festival of Naf-plion under the direction of the fa-mous pianist Yannis Vakarellis,staged at historic sites of the cityand concentrating on music. In

addition there are the Festival of Ar-gos, the International Dance Festi-val organized by the InternationalCentre of Dance in Kalamata, theOlymbos Festival held in the an-cient theatre at the site ofDion. Thefestivals of Philippoi and Thasos atthe ancient theatres at Philippoiand on the island of Thasos arealso noteworthy. In addition, theFestival of Herakleion, held at theManosHadjidakis Theatre and theNikos Kazantzakis Garden Theatre,offers one of the largest andmostvaried programmes, hosting the-atrical performances, traditionalmusic anddance events, opera, artexhibitions, lectures and symposia.The International Festival at Patrasincludes performances of ancientdrama, classical and modern the-atre, opera, classicalmusic, art ex-hibitions, seminars, conferencesetc. The Dodoni Festival at the an-cient theatre of Dodoni in Epirus isdedicated to historic drama, theDionysia on the island of Naxos of-fers concerts, dance performances,folk events, literary evenings andshadowpuppet shows. In the townof Rethymno in Crete, the Renais-

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sance Festival hosts drama,musicand dance events, cinema, and vi-sual art performances. The Festivalof Chania, hosted in the city’s Ve-netian port and fortress, includesart exhibitions, music and danceperformances and puppet theatreshows. In amedieval castle in thecity of Rhodes, the SummertimeFestival hostsmusic concerts, the-atre and dance events, traditionaland Renaissance music concertsand recitals.

Special festival eventsdedicated tospecific forms of artistic expres-sions include theHydra Internation-al Puppet Festival, featuring shad-ow theatre performances byGreekand foreign artists, and the IthacaTheatre Competition, with newand innovative theatrical perform-ances. In addition, there is theHippocraticOath Festival on the is-land of Kos that stages classicalGreekdrama performances aswellas a re-enactment of theHippocrat-ic oath ritual. Finally, the Festival ofArt and Speech on the island ofLefkada is dedicated to literatureand hosts lectures, plays, concerts

and exhibitions,while theSantoriniInternationalMusic Festival offersconcerts of classical music.Many more cultural events andfestivals of shorter duration arehosted from springtime to autumnby a multitude of towns and vil-lages. These are usually celebra-tions of events and figures of localhistorical significance, local prod-ucts and crafts, such as the winefestivals on Samos and Crete, theOuzo festival in Mytilene, the Ag-onia Festival on Crete, with dancingand singing contests, musicalevents and local handicraft exhibi-tions. Other examples are theMiaouleia Sailing week in Hydra,dedicated to Admiral Miaouli,which organizes traditional danceperformances, and re-enactsMiaouli’s torching of the Turkish Ar-mada during theWar of Independ-ence. There is also the “Armata” onSpetses, a re-enactment of theOttoman Navy’s defeat in the is-land’s harbour and the MykonosGrape Harvest celebration held atthe AgrarianMuseum that revivestraditional production activitiessuch as winemaking.

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THETHESSALONIKIFILM FESTIVAL47 yearscreatively alivein film

The Thessaloniki InternationalFilm Festival (TIFF) is the leadingfilm festival in South-Eastern Eu-rope, the showcase of annualGreekproduction and theBalkans’primary and oldest festival fortheworkof emerging new interna-tional filmmakers.

Beginning in 1960 as the Week ofGreek Cinema, TIFF is one of thefew festivals in the world – withCannes and Venice – that canclaim such a long life. 1992 is theyear in which the Festival’s inter-national section began. This iswhen it received the title of OfficialFilm Festival from the InternationalProducers Federation (FIAPF). From

the beginning of its internationalphase, the Festival’s official com-petition programme included firstor second films by new directorsfrom all over the world – amongthem Greek directors’ first or sec-ond films.

Since then, the Thessaloniki Inter-national Film Festival, constantlyevolving, lays claim to and suc-ceeds at an increasing internationalscope.

As amajor international film event,TIFF presents the most innovativeindependent films from aroundthe world and caters to the multi-faceted needs of the internationalfilm industry. Last year TIFF had thehonour of presenting out of 14competing films in its competitionprogramme 5 international and 2European premieres.

In its new endeavour, TIFF has es-tablished a close collaborationwith various local and internationalfilm institutions, cultural, educa-tional and social organisations, aswell as embassies and foreigncultural institutions in Greece.

Distinguished directors have visit-ed the Festival throughout theyears either asmembers of the Juryor as honoured guests, along withinternationally recognized namesthat are part of “international filmmythology” such as Francis FordCoppola and Wim Wenders,Catherine Deneuve, Faye DunawayandHarvey Keitel, Claude Chabrol,Michael Winterbottom and Nag-isha Oshima.

During the last decade, the Thes-saloniki International Film Festival,expanding its activities beyond

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its cornerstone November event,has established itself as an organ-ization with a continuously in-creasing range of cultural activitiesthroughout the year. Moreover,over the last two years, it hasplanned and implemented a widepath for development for the ben-efit of the cinema of the largerBalkan area, South-Eastern Europeand the Eastern Mediterranean,and the professionals coming fromthere.

TheThessaloniki International FilmFestival’smission, as ithasbeende-termined from itsdevelopmentandis constantly adapted to the needsof the era’s new challenges is:

• To help Greek film makers todevelop, produce andmarkettheir films.

• To promote Greek cinema• To promote international cine-

ma in Greece• To offer a communication plat-

form between artists and theaudience, art and society.

THE THESSALONIKIINTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL IN NOVEMBERThe November event is the organi-zation’s main activity, that whichdraws the attention of the interna-tional film community and Greekviewers to our country. It is a cel-ebration of themoving image andits brilliant and recognized cre-ators, which hasmanaged to givethe always hospitable and art-loving city of Thessaloniki the titleof Balkan Capital of Cinema.This same November festival in-cludes a plethora of sections andsidebar events that make up itsprogramme.

• The International Section in-cludes a competition for firstand second features, in whichfourteen first or second featurefilms of directors from all overthe world vie for the Golden

and the Silver Alexander. • The annual Panorama of Greek

films is a non-competitive sec-

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tion presenting an exceptionaland comprehensive overviewof the recent local production.In 2006 TIFF introduced a newcompetitive section for Greekfilms produced and screenedin digital format, called Digital-Wave.

• The Independence Days, devot-ed to latest cinema trends, is anon-competitive section pre-senting a cutting-edge show-case for the latest trends in in-dependent film production.

• The Balkan Survey, created in1994, stands out as a uniqueprogramme, opening for audi-ences a window to the cinemaof the Balkan region.

• Focus is the festival’s thematicsection, the latest addition tothe international programme, athematic section focusing everyyear on a different subject mat-ter. Last year itwasdedicated toTeenage Lust / Teenage Angst.

• Retrospectives and tributes toleading figures in the world offilm.

At the same time, a rich programmeof parallel events strengthens thecharacter of this multi-faceted cul-tural happening. Included in thisframework is the organization ofparallel events that in the last fewyears have won the interest of vis-itors, spreading the spirit of the Fes-tival to the entire city of Thessaloni-ki. This programme includes:

• Exhibitions• Masterclasses and Round

Table Discussions• Publications• Concerts and parties

Last year’s Festival organizationwas one of the most successful,

marking a new successful directionof reaching out: 308 films from 51different countries were presentedat last year’s TIFF in the various sec-tions and tributes. This rich screen-ing programme included 238 fea-ture films from international pro-duction and 70 short and mediumlength films. There were 583screenings, including 55 pressscreenings, 36 regional screeningsand 46 post-festival screenings.There were 10 Masterclasses givenby 11 distinguished guests, 5Round Table discussions with 31distinguished guest panellists, 8exhibitions, and 5 concerts. Therewere 2 catalogues published –one general and one Greek - , 2programmes – one detailed andone brief – 5 monographs – 3 onforeign and 2 on Greek directors -, 2 publications on national cine-mas and one thematic publication– most of them both in English andGreek.

The above events were attendedby a total of 153,065 viewers fromGreece and abroad, a record num-ber for the last years, and an in-crease of 26.5 % over last year.Three other areas showed an in-crease over last year as well: salesof the cineΚΑΡΤΑf membershipcards went up 37.38%, the bookstore’s sales up by 113.08% andwebsite hits by 38.1% .

And all this took place in what is bydefinition the most cinematic city ofGreece, Thessaloniki, which offersour foreign visitors the opportunityto see other landmarks from thecity’s past and present, from its an-cient and Byzantine monuments,passages and cohabitations ofpeoples and religions, to its con-temporary aesthetic. Landscapesof

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a livingmetropolis, a crossroadsofcivilizations, a commercial center,a multicultural place, a film location.

BEYOND THE 10 DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL The November event might be theyear’s highpoint for the Festival,but in no case is it the only one.Particularly in the last few years,the Thessaloniki International FilmFestival has been broadening itspresence with events and pro-grammes in many towns in North-ern Greece, the Aegean islandsand of course Athens, while as ofthis year it begins its activitiesabroad. During the year TIFF organ-izes retrospectives dedicated toleading, world-acclaimed film di-rectors and national cinemas, andthematic tributes, hosts or co-or-ganizes festivals, participates inbroader cultural events and scien-tific conferences.

For the period of fall 2006 to fall2007, the following have beenscheduled and are taking place:

Central Events: • Thessaloniki Documentary Fes-

tival – Images of the 21st cen-tury, in March, one of Europe’sleading documentary festivals.

• Videodance Festival, in May,annual festival dedicated tofilms related to dance, chore-ography and movement.

• And of course our next edition,the 48th Thessaloniki Inter-national Film Festival, Novem-ber, 16-25, 2007

Festivals:• Agon – the 6th International

Meeting of Archeological Filmsof the Mediterranean

• The 8th Festival of FrancophoneCinema

• The 2nd Crashfest Festival ofStudent and Youth Films

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Participation in cultural events:• 4th International Thessaloniki

Book Festival• 1st Biennale of Modern Art in

Thessaloniki• Dimitria 2007 in Thessaloniki

Thematic tributes • “Prick up your ears”: Cinema

and Music• “Film at the Centerline”: Foot-

ball and Film• Collaboration between the Film

Festival and the “Agapi” SocialService Organization on familyviolence

• The “Anoikeio”: Psychoanaly-sis and Cinema

• Magnum in Motion• 9th Panorama of Gay Films• Sex, Problems and Cinema, Νο7

Tributes to national cinemas• Icelandic, Slovakian andScan-

dinavian Cinema

Tributes to Directors • Peter Whitehead, Carol Reed

and Hayao Myazaki

Conferences• Cinema and Mass MediaThe Actor between the stage andthe screen

Activities in Greece• Fertile Infertile Line• Regional Screenings

Activities in Athens• The Thessaloniki International

Film Festival in Athens• Jan Svankmajer in Athens• Brazilian Cinema in Athens• DigitalWave in Athens

Activities abroad• “Immigration in Greek Cinema”

on the move

FILM TRAININGHavingasalways theaimofexpand-ing traininghorizonsanddevelopingameaningfuldialoguebetween theteaching communityand the7thart,the Thessaloniki International FilmFestival organizes a series of inno-vative activities which seek to givea creative and alternative way ofviewing cinema to students andteachers. In collaboration with theMinistryofEducation, withacademicinstitutionsandeducational organ-izations, it has created versatileprogramming with adapted pro-grammes foreacheducationalstage.The aim of these programmes is tocontribute to the creation of an au-dience educated in cinema and theaudiovisual arts, in an age when itis being bombarded with all sorts ofimages, leading it to a new kind of“electro-visual” illiteracy. A specialplace in this section is reserved forthe programme for elementary levelstudents “A Stroll through the Magicof Cinema”, as well as – for highereducation students – the Master-classes and Round Table discus-sions taking place during the tendays in November.

DEVELOPMENT IN THE HEARTOF THE BALKANS, SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE AND THEEASTERN MEDITERRANEANIn the last two years, the Thessa-loniki International Film Festivalhas given great emphasis to thedevelopmental in cinema, focusingon Greece, the Balkans, South-Eastern Europe and the EasternMediterranean. These regions,marked by history as none other inthe last century, have a greatmanystorieswaiting to be told and a cin-ematic ability with a powerful po-tential for development.

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TIFF is here to lend a hand bygiving opportunities to local film in-dustries to enter the internationalmarket. In line with its desire topromote Greece as the preferredplace for developmental and cre-ative opportunities, TIFF con-tributes specific and tangible workin the field of cinema with a seriesof activities that support the filmmarkets of the wider area to growto an international level.

In 2006, during our most recent,47th edition, we created the Indus-try Centre, which was housed in anew venue in the ThessalonikiHarbour Organization BuildingComplex, next to the Warehouseswhich host a significant portion ofour activities thoughout the year.All the development related ac-tivites of the Festival were placedunder the aegis of the IndustryCentre and they confirmed it to asthe meeting point of the marketwith art, dream with realization, in-formation with dialogue. The aimof this initiative is to meet theneeds of filmmakers from Greece,the Balkans, South-Eastern Europeand the Eastern Mediterraneanby means of ground breaking ini-titatives, varied activities and newtraining programmes, based onconsultations with the industry. Essentially, this is an institutionthat serves as an umbrella for a se-ries of specialized programmes,specifically:

• The Balkan Fund, the TIFFScript Development Fund,since 2003 has been helpingfilmmakers from the Balkan re-gion and Greece to bring to lifetheir artistic vision. One of thefirst projects it funded, thefilm Grbavica, won the Golden

Bear at the Berlin Film Festivalthis year. Through the BalkanFund the sovereign position ofThessaloniki is reaffirmed as acultural center for cinema inthe wider area.

• The TIFF Co-Production ForumCrossroads since 2005 createsand offers a framework for col-laboration between directorsand producers from the Balka-ns, the Mediterranean andSouth-Eastern Europe and rep-resentatives from large pro-duction, distribution and salescompanies from Europe andaround the world. It supports

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the producers of fiction filmswhich are connected to the ar-eas of the Mediterranean andthe Balkans, connecting themwith a network of financiers,co-producers, and importantplayers from the internationalfilm industry.

• Agora - The TIFF Market aims tostrengthen the promotion anddistribution of the films partic-ipating in all sections of theFestival, as well as the devel-opment of an Annual FilmMar-ket geographically focused onand having a major influenceon the region of the Balkans,theMediterranean and North-Eastern Europe. During the47th International ThessalonikiFilm Festival, in the context ofthe Agora, 395 films fromGreece, the Balkans, SE Europeand the SE Mediterraneanwere viewed 2,500 times.

• The SalonicaStudio – The TIFFStudent Workshops, a work-shop in which graduating stu-dents from Mediterranean,Balkan and European filmschools attend hands on sem-inars on international financingand sales, special screenings

and all the development activ-

ities of the Festival that relate

to their area of interest.

WAITING FOR

THE 48th EDITIONThe Festival is a great celebration for

all who are curious about the cre-

ative productions of today, catering

to the interests of the audience of

today and tomorrow. And at the

same time it is an exhibition of the

audiovisual productionsof our era,

a live market of the most noble and

charming achievements of the imag-

ination of talented artists. A contem-

porary audiovisual exhibition in

which fiction meets rationalism,

culture a celebration, art the market.

The aim of the Thessaloniki Interna-

tional Film Festival is, while re-

specting film history, to be a place

of discovery of new trends, to meet

the needs of the international film

market, to give a platform to direc-

tors, to play a meaningful training

and educational role, to be a youth-

ful hub of life and creative discus-

sion for its visitors.

USEFUL LINKS

www.hellenicfestival.gr

www.filmfestival.gr