23/09/2015 - Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth and Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan bookend a programme of over 300 titles, 12 of them competing for the Golden Athena

This year celebrating its 21st edition, the Athens International Film Festival raises its curtains today, 23 September, presenting a programme of over 200 features and 100 shorts. The Cannes-awarded films Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile] by Paolo Sorrentino and Dheepan [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jacques Audiard
film profile] by Jacques Audiard will bookend the gathering, which will also feature local premieres of such films as Andrew Haigh’s Berlinale-awarded 45 Years [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Andrew Haigh
film profile], Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America and Gaspar Noé’s Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

In its two competitive sections, 12 films will vie for the International Competition’s Golden Athena Award, while eight titles will compete in the Music and Film speciality programme. Moreover, 12 local titles will be screened during the festival, which will also hand out the Best Newcomer Awards for Greek debuts screened in the past 12 months.

The Karlovy Vary-featured Symptom, which is Angelos Frantzis’ follow-up to festival darling In the Woods [+see also:
film review
film profile], will have its world premiere during the event, while newcomers Dimitris Tzetzas and Pantelis Kalatzis will take a stab at the political-thriller genre, mixing current affairs and cinematic suspense in their feature debuts The Republic and Marionettes, respectively.

Critics’ Week titles Dégradé [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Arab and Tarzan Abunasser (Palestine/France/Qatar) and Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant (Canada) will go head to head with Sundance favourites Songs My Brothers Taught Me by Chloé Zhao (USA) and Alanté Kavaïté’s The Summer of Sangaile [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alanté Kavaïté
film profile] (Lithuania/France/the Netherlands) in the International Competition. In addition, the festival’s programme will also feature selective panoramas on Nicolas Roeg, Sean Baker, Eytan Fox and Shirley Clarke.