Despite Lockdown, Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Aims to Give Greek Industry a Boost

straight to your inboxPep Guardiola has confirmed the entire Manchester City squad is fit apart from Nathan Ake ahead of tomorrow's Champions League meeting with Olympiacos.City had been without Ake as well as Benjamin Mendy and Fernandinho in recent weeks while Sergio Aguero returned during the weekend's defeat against Tottenham.The Blues can all but secure passage to the knockout stages of the competition with a victory in Greece after winning all three of their group stage fixtures thus

straight to your inboxPep Guardiola has confirmed Sergio Aguero trained with his Manchester City teammates ahead of the Champions League clash against Olympiacos but hinted he would not be involved against the Greek champions.The Argentine missed four months after suffering a serious knee injury that required surgery back in June.Aguero returned for the Premier League clash against Arsenal last month but was substituted at half-time with a fresh injury concern.

Mexico to find her teenage son who went missing while trying to reach the United States, won the top prize at Greece’s Thessaloniki Film Festival on Monday.Organizers said the feature film by Mexican debut director Fernanda Valadez had been awarded the Golden Alexander prize.“In a cruel world of heartbreaks, tragedy, and survival, a story of an unexpected bond is born,” the organizers said in a statement.

Christopher Vourlias “Identifying Features,” Fernanda Valadez’s searing abduction drama set along the U.S.-Mexico border, was awarded the Golden Alexander for best feature film at the 61st Thessaloniki Film Festival.The awards were announced Monday at the conclusion of the Greek fest’s digital edition, which ran Nov. 5-15.

Christopher Vourlias This summer a new board of directors took the reins at the Greek Film Center (GFC), the body that oversees all aspects of the country’s film policy, from bolstering the development and production of local cinema to luring international film and television shoots to the Mediterranean nation.

ATHENS, Greece -- A bust of the ancient god Hermes, in good condition, was discovered in central Athens during sewage work, authorities said Sunday.The Greek Culture Ministry said that the head, one of many that served as street markers in ancient Athens, was found Friday and it appears to be from around 300 B.C. — that is, either from the late fourth century B.C., or the early third century.

Christopher Vourlias Dating back to her childhood in Greece, first-time director Janis Rafa has spent the better part of her life contemplating death. The title of her feature-length debut, “Kala Azar,” takes its name from the parasitic disease that swept through the country in the 1990s, ravaging the animal population.

Christopher Vourlias The Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, announced the awards from this year’s online edition at a virtual ceremony held Friday.The Crossroads Co-Production Forum’s Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, which offers full post-production image and sound to the winning project, went to writer-director Estibaliz Urresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees,” produced by Lara Izagirre of Spain’s Gariza Films.The jury praised the project “for the exceptional directorial vision

Tom Grater International Film ReporterParis-headquartered content creator and producer Asacha Media Group has hired Maria Grazia Ursino as Vice President of Content Development and Distribution. She joins from Disney where she most recently served as Sales Director for Turkey, Israel and Greece, following the company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

Christopher Vourlias As the industry arm of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the leading cinematic showcase for the Baltic nations, the five-day Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event has grown into a lynchpin for conversations about the current and future state of production in the region, bringing together leading entertainment, tech and VC professionals.This year will be no different, even as the coronavirus pandemic has forced organizers to shift to a virtual-only edition—something the

Christopher Vourlias Giorgos Valsamis could not have predicted where his career path would lead almost a decade ago, when, as a student of fine arts and accounting, he bought a camera to photograph the dramatic landscapes of Iceland, where he was on a study-abroad program. “It never crossed my mind that I could be a cinematographer,” Valsamis told Variety.

Christopher Vourlias With a second lockdown looming amid a spike in coronavirus cases across Greece, Giorgos Karnavas, of production outfit Heretic, knew it was a race against time to wrap shooting on “Triangle of Sadness,” a satire directed by Oscar nominee and Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund.Production on the Woody Harrelson-starring feature was postponed for three months earlier this year due to COVID-19, and principal photography was underway on the island of Evia and on a yacht in the

Kaleem Aftab There are rising concerns over a number of coronavirus cases believed to have originated at last week’s El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt.“I’m seeing a growing number of people who attended the Gouna Film Festival are learning they got COVID-19,” warns a Facebook post circulating among those who attended the Oct. 23-31 event.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian film critic Giona A.

Christopher Vourlias With days to spare before the opening night of this year’s Thessaloniki Intl.

Christopher Vourlias Athens-born Fokion Bogris is among the generation of Greeks who have spent most of their adult lives in the shadow of austerity measures and a seemingly never-ending economic crisis. Like many of his country’s filmmakers, the self-taught director, who turned 40 last year, continues to persevere, even as the coronavirus pandemic has compounded the challenges for an already cash-strapped film industry.

Christopher Vourlias Christos Nikou’s “Apples” will represent Greece in the best international feature film race at the 2021 Oscars, Variety has learned.Nikou’s directorial debut, which opened the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival and was also a selection in Telluride and Toronto, is the story of a man struggling to recover his memory in the midst of a pandemic that causes widespread amnesia.