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FESTIVALS Greece

Athens International Film Festival ready for its 20th birthday

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- A record number of 241 films will populate the event’s various programmes, including 11 titles vying for the Golden Athena Award

Athens International Film Festival ready for its 20th birthday

Kicking off the Greek festival season, the Athens International Film Festival (17-28 September) will this year celebrate its 20th edition with a record number of 241 films generously sprinkled throughout its ten different programmes, including its two competitive branches. Cannes contender Wild Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
will open the festival, while the closing-night gala will feature David Fincher’s Gone Girl, screening less than 48 hours after its New York world premiere.

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Eleven debut, sophomore or third feature films comprise the international competition, this year including titles like Tribeca’s Best Debut winner Manos Sucias (USA/Colombia), the Berlinale’s Teddy and FIPRESCI winner The Way He Looks (Brazil), and SXSW Jury Prize winner Fort Tilden (USA), as well as the Cannes contender When Animals Dream [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Alexander Arnby
film profile
]
(Denmark) and the SXSW-premiered Long Distance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
film profile
]
(Spain/USA).

The festival’s Music & Film competition will feature the Nick Cave-centred documentary 20,000 Days on Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(UK) along with Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets (UK), while David Michôd’s Cannes contender The Rover (Australia/USA) will be the main attraction of the Focus section, this year showcasing the best of Australian cinema.

Syllas Tzoumerkas’ Locarno-premiered A Blast [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Syllas Tzoumerkas
film profile
]
(Greece/Germany/Netherlands), Panos H Koutras' Cannes UCR contender Xenia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Panos H. Koutras
film profile
]
(Greece/France) and Athanasios Karanikolas’ Berlinale entry At Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Greece/Germany) will headline this year’s lukewarm selection of Greek features; the festival will also world-debut Yiannis SoldatosThe Apache Onslaught, Dimitris PiatasPandemia, Nikos GrammatikosMedea and Nikos Kornilios' Matriarchy [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Margarita Manda’s Forever, Hristos Voupouras7 Kinds of Wrath and Petros Sevastikoglou’s Electra will also be featured as Works in Progress.

Polish director Andrzej Zulawski will be honoured with an extensive retrospective dubbed “In Extremis”, Robert Altman’s 1970s work will also be showcased, and an enlightening focus on local legend Stavros Tornes will be one of the event’s highlights.

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