Onassis Culture at Drama International Short Film Festival 2021

Since 2020, Onassis Culture is a partner of the leading short film festival in Greece, raising the voices of emerging filmmakers at their very first steps. During lockdown, the Onassis YouTube Channel screened the Drama Festival’s award-winning films, iso that they could reach an international audience. That same year, DISFF screened 12 selected works of the Onassis Culture ENTER project in a special program dedicated to films made during the restrictive measures due to the pandemic. Our partnership with Drama Festival is an ever-evolving one and our love for it is ever-growing.

This year, Onassis Foundation Director of Culture, Afroditi Panagiotakou, is a member of the jury at the International Competition of DISFF, alongside the actress Anna Mouglalis, the Director of Greek Film Center’s Hellenic Film Commission Venis Vergou, the director Lydia Georgana, and the editor Giannis Chalkiadakis. The International program features films both by new and renowned filmmakers, and some of them have already made feature films. Distinguished films as well as new discoveries by emerging directors, films that defy genres creating new languages of communication and focusing on issues ranging from gender to class, they are all interconnected. Three Greek short films are among them: “From the Balcony” by Aris Kaplanidis, “Motorway 65” by Evi Kalogiropoulou, and “Brutalia, Working Days” by Manolis Mavris.

At the Onassis Foundation we love Greek cinema and support it in its every form and expression. We release the potential and talent of both renowned and up-and-coming filmmakers and we embrace the process of creation, research, and artistic development.

Everything starts from the script; the New Worlds of Cinema are first made on paper. This is the reason we created a special script development program this year. Yannis Economides, Evi Kalogiropoulou, and Vassilis Kekatos are among the filmmakers who already take part in the program and develop their new projects with the Onassis Culture support.

Our wish for the Onassis Culture cinema family is to be an ever-growing one. Through the International Competition of the Drama International Short Film Festival we discovered new voices worth hearing. So, we decided that the Greek filmmakers participating in the DISFF International Competition will receive the Onassis Film Development Grant. This year, Manolis Mavris and Aris Kaplanidis will receive €10,000 each to develop their feature-length script.

Also, this year for the first time – in partnership with the Drama Festival – we establish an Inclusion and Acceptance Award, the Onassis Culture Queer Drama Award. The award is given to one of the National Competition short films with LGBT+ content and is accompanied by a €2,000 cash prize.

The National Competition of DISFF screens the short documentary “Girlhood” by Vania Turner and Maria Sidiropoulou, an Onassis Culture production. The film follows the story of three 17-year-old girls at a neighborhood of the Athenian center as they struggle with coming-of-age amid the quarantine isolation. They experience sexism, dream of their independence, and try to understand what it means “to be a girl in our days.”

"Girlhood" film screening at DISFF 2021 on Wednesday September 15, 2021 at 22:00 and 22:45

The Onassis Foundation invests over time in Greek cinema and becomes an active part of the artistic creation. From Vassilis Kekatos to Panos Koutras and from Yannis Economides to Evi Kalogiropoulou, Onassis Cinema supports renowned filmmakers and young talents through development of scripts and production of short and feature films. It embraces the process of creation, research, and artistic development offering scholarships and fellowships. It collaborates with major institutions, such as the Hellenic Film Academy, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Drama International Short Film Festival, the Athens International Film Festival, and the Oxbelly Screenwriters & Directors Lab, in order to support Greek cinema both nationally and internationally.