The Festival has now established itself as an institution of international scope, as 790 nominations were submitted from 100 different countries
A great festival of cinema and culture will be set up for the seventh year in a row in rural Kastellorizo. The 7th Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival “Beyond the Borders”, which is under the auspices of A.E. of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulouwill be held in the last week of August (21-28/08/22) and will once again be the Kastellorizo meeting point of documentary with History and culture.
This year in the context of the Official Competition Section, the Jury of the Festival will award the awards for: Best Historical Documentary, Best Socio-political Documentary and Best Short Documentary – all courtesy of the Hellenic Parliament – the Best Greek Documentary award sponsored by the Greek Cypriot Committee, the Special Mediterranean Friendship Award, sponsored by EKOME as well as the Special Odysseus Award, sponsored by the General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy. From this year, the Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival “Beyond the Borders” consolidates and will award a FIPRESCI Award, which will be given by a 3-member committee of the International Federation of Film Critics.
The difficult process of awarding the awards is undertaken once again by distinguished members of the global film community. This year’s jury of the official competition section consists of Peter Arens – Head of the “History and Science” department of the German public television organization ZDF, Phaedra Vokali – Director of the Hellenic Film Academy, Director & Producer, Marco Gastine – Director & Producer, Danae Elon- Director & Filmmaker (Best Socio-Political Documentary Award “Beyond Borders” 2021) and Uri Cohen – Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Italian Literature at Tel Aviv University.
The Porter Institute for Poetics & Semiotics, Tel Aviv University, will be awarded as an Honorary Academic Institution for its commendable and long-standing contribution to the support and promotion of experienced filmmakers. The Festival will also award the German Public Documentary Channel PHOENIX as an Honored Media. The Chania Film Festival will be awarded by the organization as the Honored Festival.
The opening ceremony will be dedicated to the 100 years of the Asia Minor Disaster and the closing ceremony of the Festival will be in memory of the late Mikis Theodorakis. Residents of the island and its distinguished guests will have the opportunity at the opening ceremony on August 21 to watch the excellent documentary film “Radiography of A Family” by Rirouzeh Khrosrovani.
The evening will end with the musical concert entitled: “Arothymo and Tragoudo” and the great performer Iro Saia. The music for the intermissions has been undertaken by the Athens State Orchestra (KOA), as well as the band DUETTO 16. At the closing ceremony, the film “A Death for Peace. Mahatma Gandhi and the Impossible Quest” by Arnaud Mandgaran, while the curtain will fall with the concert of the musical ensemble ARGONAUTES, which consists of the soloists: Dimitris Papagelidis (classical guitar), Spyros Payati (piano), Dimitris Koufogiorgos (mandolin) and Marilisa Papadouri Papagelidis (cello).
The Panorama of this year’s Festival is radically upgraded, hosting in its large canvas both landmark films that have left their mark in the field of documentary, as well as world and nationwide premieres that aspire to conquer international festivals. This year, 38 documentaries take part outside the competition, which trace and highlight the past, present and tomorrow of global cinematography. Special tributes will be held to “boulders” of Greek cinema, such as the late Robiros Manthoulis.
In addition, in collaboration with the Hellenic Film Academy, 3 films (by Thanasis Neta, Laki Papastathi and Eva Stefanis) from the “Country, I see you” program will be hosted. An action, under the auspices of the Greece 2021 Committee, with the sponsorship of the National Audiovisual Center (main sponsor), the Hellenic Film Center, the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the Thessaloniki Film Festival and with the support of the Film Archive of Greece and Finos Film . Among the films of the Panorama festival, the documentary “George Bizos Icon” will be screened nationwide for the first time, for which we owe warm thanks to the Secretary General of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ioannis Chrysoulakis.
This year, for the first time, the second competitive stage of screenings was instituted in the microCRO category, in which short documentary films by experienced as well as new, up-and-coming creators will participate. Three of them will be awarded with the awards: Golden Phoenix, Silver Phoenix and Bronze Phoenix, with the exclusive sponsor of the German state channel Phoenix/ZDF.
As part of the Festival, three educational seminars (Master Classes) and two film workshops (Pitching Lab) will take place with presenters Jean Cristoph Caron, Danae Elon, Uri Cohen and Pitching Lab moderator Claudia Schreiner. These seasoned professionals from the film industry will impart their wealth of knowledge on feature documentary filmmaking, film criticism and financing strategies, as well as organizing a successful documentary by guiding aspiring emerging filmmakers.
During the entire period of “Beyond the Borders” the Megistis Municipal Hall will host the exhibition of the Foundation of the Hellenic Parliament “The Attic land welcomes the refugees of ΄22”, the opening of which will be held by the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan of Symi, Chalkis and Kastellorizos, Mr. Chrysostom. This is an exhibition on Hellenism in the Middle East. At the same time, visitors to the island will have the opportunity to enjoy the special sculpture exhibition of the exquisite artist, Alexandros Zygouris.
This year three book presentations will be added to the Festival: “The Chronicle of Ten Days” by Agapi Molyviatis-Venezis, “The Asia Minor Campaign of Kostas Misailidis” and “Homeland unforgettable Asia Minor” by Vasiliki Ralli.
The event will also be interesting for the little ones of Kastellorizi: in collaboration with the National Historical Museum, the children of the island will have the opportunity to create their own visual works through a series of handicraft workshops. At the same time, through the “Fairytale Musical Journeys” with Lili Tegou and Niki Goudoumi, they will be introduced to the magical world of fantasy and fairy tales. The teenagers will have the opportunity to create their first short film, through the Documentary Seminar entitled: “Kastellorizo and our dreams”, under the guidance of Andreas Katsikoudis, while at the same time the multi-awarded freediving instructor Roberto Kalits will deliver theoretical and hands-on freediving lessons. Finally, the Shadow Theater “Alexander the Great” by Alexandros Melissinos will give us plenty of laughs again this year. Participation in all programs and actions of the Festival is free.
The Festival is under the auspices of S.A. of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The organization belongs to Hellenic Foundation for Historical Studies (IDISME)in collaboration with Ecrans des Mondes (Paris), the South Aegean Region and is supported and/or sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Ministry of the Interior , the Hellenic Parliament, the Municipality of Megistis, the Embassy of Australia in Athens, the Embassy of the USA in Athens, the Embassy of Spain in Athens, the Czech Center of Athens, the National Center for Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), the Hellenic Center Cinema and the Hellenic Radio Television (ERT).
View the news feed and get the latest news.
