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Eleni Kokkidou as Haroula. Spiros Jacovides: 'Eleni is an incredible actor. The way she works is that she observes a lot and she takes videos and pictures. She kept coming with different Haroulas she saw on the street she saw in a store, and she would study their body language, everything' Mother and son relationships, Greek society, bureaucracy and xenophobia are all satirised by tragicomic mockumentary Black Stone. Spiros Jacovides’ film - which was named Best Debut at Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2022 - and his co-writer Ziad Semaan have crafted an audience charmer that, for all its absurdity, gains a lot of emotional heft as it goes.

The story revolves around civil servant Panos (Achilleas Chariskos), who is conspicuous by his absence - both at work and at home. He stands accused of fraud and a documentary crew are on his tail but when they turn up to his home to investigate,...

A nine-film retrospective of Indian cinema acting legend Amitabh Bachchan is set for the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France.

The retrospective, titled “Amitabh Bachchan, Big B Forever,” will showcase different aspects of the actor’s oeuvre including his persona as the ‘angry young man,’ created by writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, action, drama, romance and comedy in some of the greatest films of Hindi-language cinema including “Sholay,” “Deewar,” “Don,” “Kabhie Kabhie” and “Amar Akbar Anthony.” The directors are also legends of Indian cinema including Yash Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, Manmohan Desai and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

The showcase is co-presented by Film Heritage Foundation, the not-for-profit organization founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, which over the past year has hosted a series of hugely successful retrospectives in cinemas across India, including “Bachchan Back To The Beginning,” “Dilip Kumar – Hero of Heroes” and “Dev Anand @ 100 – Forever Young.”

Amitabh Bachchan said:...

The annual New York Greek Film Expo has been set for Village East Cinema in Manhattan and the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, N.J. on October 5-15.

The event will screen the latest Greek films, along with a retrospective of the films of acclaimed director, screenwriter and actor Renos Haralambidis, which will be shown at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMi).

Haralambidis will be in attendance throughout the festival, along with many of the filmmakers whose films are being presented. Filmmaker Q&a’s will follow the screenings.

Film historians Andrew Horton (University of Oklahoma) and Foster Hirsch (Brooklyn College), along with David Schwartz, founder of Cinema Projects and former MoMI chief curator, will conduct interviews with Haralambidis following each of his screenings.

Four of the filmmaker’s movies will be shown at the fest: “Four Black Suits” (2010), “No Budget Story” 1997), “The Heart Of The Beast” (2005) and...

The Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, an annual showcase that brings films and filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus and other countries in the region to the United States, announced the winners of its 2023 Orpheus Awards at a ceremony on Sunday night at the Silver Screen Theatre in the Pacific Design Center.

Toplining the honors: “Listen,” directed by Maria Douza, which won for best fiction feature film. “Iman,” helmed Corina Avramidou and Kyriakos Tofarides, took home the special jury award for best film, and Panos Koutras won the best director award for “Dodo.”

Spiros Jacovides won an honorable mention for best director for “Black Stone,” and Efthalia Papacosta was awarded the best performance trophy for “Listen.” “Black Stone” also won the audience award for feature film, and an honorable mention for best performance went to Stephanie Atala for “Iman.”

“Listen” centers on a 16-year-old deaf girl forced to leave her progressive Athens...

Greek comedy won four awards at Thessaloniki.

UK outfit Studio Soho International has boarded Spiros Jacovides’ debut feature Black Stone and will launch international sales on the title at Cannes.

The Greek comedy premiered at Thessaloniki where it picked up four awards including best newcomer director and the youth jury award for best feature. Further outings include Trieste, where it won best film and a jury mention, and as part of the Smart7 travelling festival competition.

The story follows a documentary crew who discover a Greek mother desperate to bring home her missing son who has been accused of fraud.

Greek comedy won four awards at Thessaloniki.

UK outfit Studio Soho International has boarded Spiros Jacovides’ debut feature Black Stone and will launch international sales on the title at Cannes.

The Greek comedy premiered at Thessaloniki where it picked up four awards including best newcomer director and the youth jury award for best feature. Further outings include Trieste, where it won best film and a jury mention, and as part of the Smart7 travelling festival competition.

The story follows a documentary crew who discover a Greek mother desperate to bring home her missing son who has been accused of fraud.

The Greek Film Festival in Berlin 2023 This was the 8th edition! And I was so honored to be on the jury! Closing the Greek Film Festival in Berlin with a short ceremony in a pleasant and warm atmosphere, with the directors of the program, Sofia Stavrianidou, Elisa Deftos, Yianna Sarri and Konstantinos Aivaliotis, as well as the jury consisting of Mirja Frehse — Senior Funding Media, Sydney Levine — International Film Business Consultant and Panagiotis Evaggelidis — Director Screenwriter, the 8th Greek Film Festival in Berlin at Babylon in Berlin Mitte brought down its curtain. With about 40 professionals present, filmmakers, producers, actors, sales agents, musicians Greek and foreign, many dear friends and a completely sold out hall, the Emerging Greeks Award and for the first time Documentary Award were presented. The Emerging Greeks Award 2023 went to Black Stone by Spiros Jacovides. The Emerging Greeks Award accompanied by 1000 euros sponsored by the Greek Film Centre went Black Stone by Spiros Jocovides, a film “that brings a specially lighthearted approach to some very important topics that torture contemporary Greek society: overbearing Greek mothers, racism and immigration among other things. A family tale, told with love, hard irony, and humor”. While filming absent civil servants, a documentary crew stumbles upon Haroula, a desperate, overprotective Greek mother in search of her son. But when he is accused of fraud, Haroula sets out with her other disabled son and a Greek-African taxi driver to bring him back home where he belongs — even though it means discovering who her son really is. The Documentary Award accompanied by 500 euros sponsored by the Musou Music Group went to a film that “shines a light on a real wound of our society today, driven by patriarchal principles. We are following a courageous woman survivor tackling a problem, that affects at least 50% of our population”. This documentary film looks into femicides in Italy, where one woman is murdered every three days. By focusing on a particular case that rocked the country, the film tries to understand the reasons behind the phenomenon.