Cinemas all over Australia have been painted a sea of blue and white as the Delphi Bank 20th Greek Film Festival was officially launched all over the nation. And while this year the festival celebrates its twenty-year existence, it does so knowing that it’s rated one of the top three foreign film festivals in the country.
Bill Papastergiadis, president of the Greek Orthodox of Melbourne and Community, says this is attributed to the hard working team that works alongside him, but also the Greek community and the wider Australian community – for embracing the cultural event.
The film festival began twenty years ago with a humble program and launch at the State Theatre. The founders – Eleni Bertes, Kostas Karamarkos and Costas Markos – wanted to give to Melbourne another avenue to explore and understand the Hellenic Republic. 173 people attended the opening night in 1993, nearly 800 attended Melbourne’s Thursday launch, and the numbers are well into the thousands around Australia.
“It’s a significant milestone as its origins were the product of volunteers with a very tight budget… so to start from those beginnings to where it is now is a speculator achievement by a number of people,” he says, making a special mention of Costas Markos, who has been in the organisation of every single film festival to date.
Although it started as a Melbourne only event, the Greek Film Festival is now in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra. Mr Papastergiadis said just last night he received an email to extend the festival to Perth.
Mr Papastergiadis says the attendance numbers make him feel “optimistic about the community’s future”, and “proud of the achievements of a dedicated and hard working group of individuals”.
The president was also thrilled to see so many young Greek Australians – and the wider community – attend the event, and attributes this to the strong program of the film festival.
And these attendance numbers have added to the success of the festival becoming one of Australia’s top three foreign film festivals.
“Being a person who attends most of the foreign film festival openings, I can say that ours is the best out of all of them,” he starts.
“In terms of attendance, and also the atmosphere that Greeks generate at an opening by way of the party, dance and food.”
For more information and to make bookings visit www.greekfilmfestival.com.au