The Deputy Minister of Culture, Iason Fotilas, mentioned the recent developments regarding the committee that will give an opinion regarding the Greek candidacy for the 97th edition of the Oscars, during the extraordinary press conference held today in the auditorium of the Ministry of Culture.

According to the deputy minister, the legal procedure was not followed in the selection of the committee, which is why he had to change it, while he himself, as he emphasized many times, would have no problem accepting the proposal with its original members, as long as the correct procedures.

“The procedure was so irregular and unauthorized that I could not use her product. It wouldn’t be right“, emphasized I. Fotilas.

As he pointed out, “there was no reason to question the commission“, which consisted of artists “eof known authority“, such as “of known authority» are also the artists participating in the one that has been published in Diaygeia and which is the only valid one.

“There is no replacement of committee members because no committee was appointed. Once a committee was set up, the one that exists in Diaugia“, he also emphasized.

In the interview, the deputy minister retraced the events to clarify the case.

As he said, he learned by chance on Sunday, August 11 that an email was sent the same day by the Directorate of Performing Arts and Cinema of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by an employee of the Ministry, informing the seven artists, whom the Directorate had chosen to recommend to the Deputy Minister to form the committee, that they are the ones who definitively constitute it.

“He also appointed a president and vice president, sent all the material, that is, the films they would have to see in order to decide who to vote for, and at the end he told them that all that remained was the formal signature of the minister in charge. All this before the proposal even reached the secretary general’s office for signature, and mine for final signature. That is, for some reason unknown to me, this particular employee decided to ignore and bypass the entire hierarchical process as prescribed by law“, emphasized Mr. Fotilas.

According to him, no one, except the employee who sent the email, knew about her initiative, while when she was asked, she said that everything was done out of overzealousness in order to run the procedures faster and to gain time.

“The motion would be signed because there was no reason to question the committee. The signing was a formal procedure in a way”, added I. Fotilas, who, as he noted, had to act very quickly, as in three days, on 8/15, the American Academy of Oscars had to be informed about the members of the committee – “otherwise we would lose the Oscar process“, emphasized the deputy minister.

It is noted that of the 7 members of the original proposal, three were not included.

“If I could I would change them all – except for the winner of last year’s Hellenic Film Academy awards, because the winner is always a member of the committee – because that would be the right thing. But there was no time. I chose artists from the list of artists given to me by the YPPO, not from my mind. For some, the Directorate of the Ministry of Defense itself had tried, but had not found them on the phone. I tried again and found them. My reasoning was, first, as long as I can put together a committee so that we don’t lose the Oscar process. And secondly, to be made up of people who are reputable, like those who were in the original proposalhe noted.

After questions from journalists, the deputy minister pointed out that the law 3905/2010 (concerning the strengthening and development of the cinematographic art) should be updated, while he emphasized that he hoped that after this interview, the artists who withdrew their films from the process selection of the Oscars, but also the members who resigned from the committee after the recent developments, will return.

As for the proposal of the Hellenic Film Academy (EAK) to have the responsibility of choosing the Greek nomination for the Oscar International Film Award, he said that “has some reservations about it“, how “we have to look at international practices” and that he is here to talk about this issue with EAK as well.