On Monday the Greek Film Academy announced the winners in its sixth year, awarding the Greek creatives who struggled to produce internationally accredited filmography in such difficult sociopolitical and financial times for Greece.
Panos Koutras’ film Xenia, which has accumulated many international awards and accolades, was unsurprisingly the ceremony’s great winner, bagging six awards out of 15 nominations. It was awarded for best script, best supporting male actor, best director, best montage, best costumes and of course, best fiction film.
The highlight of the night was director Panos Koutras’ decision not to accept the award handed to him on stage by four Greek-born children of immigrants fighting to get citizenship.
After thanking his family, his partner, his producers, actors and the entire cast of people who worked closely and with devotion to bring his vision to life, he offered both the best fiction movie and best script awards to these children.
“And because life isn’t all about equality and remains unfair, we’ve therefore decided not to take this award home,” Panos Koutras said.
“With all due respect to the Greek Film Academy, we shall only accept this when the law offering second generation immigrants in Greece citizenship is established.”
Panagiotis Evangelidis, the film’s producer, declared his support for the director’s decision.
“We hope this much-anticipated law, offering these children who have been born and educated here the same rights we posses, soon becomes reality,” he said.
Along with Xenia, Giannis Oikonomidis’ film Little Fish and Giannis Veslemes’ first directorial attempt with the movie Norway didn’t leave empty-handed. The short film on the history of the Xylouris clan, A Family Affair, directed by Angeliki Aristomenopoulou, received the award for best documentary.