We celebrate Greek Cinema at the 63rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Awards, international co-productions, premieres, and a VR installation. Onassis Foundation is actively present at the largest film festival in Greece.
This year the Onassis Film Award is given to “The Sea Urchin” project by Iris Baglanea, a work that achieves to speak in a sensitive and poetic manner on the conflict between childhood and adulthood, mankind and nature, life and death, all the while presenting a timeless story with boldness and sincerity. The previous work of the director and the potential of the artistic team guarantee a film worth seeing.
Three Onassis Foundation co-productions at the Festival
“Bastards” by Nikos Pastras
John Cassavetes 10 November 2022, 16:00 | John Cassavetes, 10 November 2022, 20:00 [B1]
The Bastards have left the city behind. Their house in the countryside smells of nothing but summer. Five girls and five boys living in the moment, for the moment. No outsider comes near here, and all the insiders take turns standing guard, kissing each other, playing dead. They are still kids. They are your kids. They are our Bastards.
The project that won the Onassis Film Award for 2022 is making its premiere at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
“Dodo” by Panos H. Koutras
Olympion, 7 November 2022, 19:30
A strange bird that had disappeared from the planet hundreds of years ago is making an out of the blue reappearance in Athens, at the luxurious residence of a family on the brink of financial disaster. The countdown to bankruptcy has begun and in the few hours leading to the marriage of the family’s daughter, the boundaries between sanity and madness will be tested and the situation will soon get out of hand.This is the plot of Panos H. Koutras’ new film, following “The Attack of The Giant Moussaka,” “Real Life,” “Strella,” and “Xenia,” which had its official premiere in the Cannes Première section of the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
The film, co-produced by the Onassis Foundation, had its pre-festival premiere at the Onassis Stegi on 31 October 2022.
Still from the "Broadway" movie
“Broadway” by Christos Massalas
“Broadway” by Christos Massalas reached an international audience during the 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam, one of the most significant film events worldwide, where it competed for the grand Big Screen Award. The film had also its French premiere at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers and was screened across cinema theaters in France, while it was further screened at Greek cinema theaters in September.
The first feature film by director Christos Massalas, in co-production with Onassis Culture, participates in a special screening at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Eastern Outpost of the Gate, Pier A, Port of Thessaloniki, 3-13 November 2022, 13:00 – 21:00
In “White Dwarf,” an interactive virtual reality installation (VR), Yolanda Markopoulou portrays through virtual reality means the story of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima in an immersive experience at the 63rd Thessaloniki Film Festival, with the support of Onassis Culture, the Greek Film Centre, VR Academy, and the Thessaloniki Port Authority S.A.
“White Dwarf” is an interactive virtual reality installation (VR). The research of physician J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb,” is weaved with the story of young Sadako Sasaki, a victim of Hiroshima’s bombing. Scientific developments and space exploration are juxtaposed with the little girl’s promise to bring peace in the aftermath of the Second World War. Macro-history and micro-history intertwine amid a minimalist environment, while the journey of universal memory across history conjures a sense of freedom that evokes the traveling light. The explosion of the atomic bomb recalls the death of a star in a supernova explosion, where, instead of restoring cosmic balance, it inflicts irrevocable damage on Earth.
A resident artist of the Onassis Foundation for 2022-23, Yolanda Markopoulou will focus on the sensorial aspects of the audience’s experience, seeking new ways to bridge the documentary format by combining performative arts with cinema and new media. The viewers go through a holistic experience that blurs the lines between virtual and physical reality, becoming participants in a scientific experiment that will change humanity forever.