Wednesday, January 11, 2012
- Two films in competition @ Berlinale 2012
The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival has announced the world premiere of a number of films, including Spiros Stathoulopoulos’ Meteora, a film about the secret romance between a Greek monk and a Russian nun, in 12th-century Meteora cluster of monasteries.
Stathoulopoulos is a Greek-Colombian director, who gained international attention in 2007 with PVC-1, an 84’ continuous take of a woman held hostage and turned into a human bomb.
The film had premiered as an official selection for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes and won a very prestigious prize, the Directors’ Award at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival. The success of that film has turned Meteora, a Greek-German co-production, into a much anticipated release for 2012.
The Berlinale will be held on February 9-19 and will also feature another Greek film, Angelos Abazoglou’s docufiction Mustafa’s Sweet Dreams, in competition at the Generation 14+ section for young filmmakers.
- Greek Films @ Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festivals
Two Greek films will premiere in the Netherlands at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Unfair World by Filippos Tsitos and Alps by Yorgos Lanthimos will be sreened in the Spectrum section, while Ektoras Lygizos’ The Boy Eating the Bird’s Food will be launched as work in progress.
Duncharon by Athina Rachel Tsangari and Hungry Mouth by Argyris Papadimitropoulos are included in this year’s selection for CineMart, a film market that was launched 28 years ago and has gradually evolved into “a new kind of platform to present projects looking for additional financing”. The Rotterdam Film Festival will run from January 25 through February 5.
At about the same time - January 27 to February 5 –the Göteborg International Film Festival takes place, where Yorgos Lanthimos is head of the jury for The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award. His film, Alps, will also be screened at the festival.