Los Angeles Greek Film Festival January 2012 News - Awards & More!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

GOLDEN GLOBE WIN!

Congratulations to LAGFF Board members Alexander Payne, Jim Gianopulos and Phedon Papamichael! Payne's Ad Hominem Enterprises and Gianopulos' Fox Searchlight Pictures won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Drama) for THE DESCENDANTS at the January 15th Golden Globes ceremony. The film also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for George Clooney. Phedon Papamichael served as Director of Photography.

Alexander Payne on the red carpet

Michael Hazanavicius' black and white silent film THE ARTIST got the Golden Globe for Best Comedy, Best Actor for Jean Dujardin and Best Musical Score for composer Ludovic Bource. Hazanavicius is French of Greek descent.

Filmmaker Michael Hazanavicius (left) won for his film, THE ARTIST starring Jean Dujardin

Click here for more information and to see photos.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

GREEK FILMS IN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS Greek filmmakers continue to successfully reach out to the international film festival  community. Babis Makrides' feature debut L is screening at Sundance in competition, next week. For more information click here. Spiros Stathoulopoulos' new film METEORA, about the vehement forbidden love affair will screen in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Tamila Koulieva and Theo Alexander star in the lead roles. Stathoulopoulos' daring PVC-1 screened at LAGFF in 2008. For more information please click here. Angelos Abatzoglou's MUSTAFA'S SWEET DREAMS will also screen at the Berlin Film Festival, in the parallel program Generation 14+. For more information click here. Unfair World Filippos Tsitos' UNFAIR WORLD and George Lanthimos' ALPS ALPS will screen a the Spectrum section of the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Tsitos' PLATO'S ACADEMY screened at LAGFF in 2010 and won the Orpheus for Beast Feature. Lanthimos' DOGTOOTH screened at LAGFF in 2010 and won an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film the following January. For more information click here.

A GREEN STORY Van Vlahakis left Greece five decades ago with 22 dollars in his pocket. Eftehios - as is his Greek name - not only managed to live the American dream for himself, but also created Earth Friendly Products, a US giant for environmentally friendly cleaning products, transforming his life the lives of the ones around him. Nika Agiasvhili writes, directs and co-produces A GREEN STORY, a feature production based on Vlahakis' story. The cast includes Ed O'Ross (check this one), Shannon Elizabeth, Annabella Sciorra, Malcolm McDowell, Billy Zane, George Finn, Louis Mandylor, Alexis Georgoulis, Alessandra Toressani, Debbie Matenopoulos, Thaao Phenghlis, Roger Bart, Anthony Skordi, Mihalis Giannatosand Julianna Guill. To visit the Facebook fan page, click here.

WARLORDS: BROTHERHOOD - NOW AVAILABLE This graphic novel, WARLORDS: BROTHERHOOD by Paris Kasidokostas Latsisand Max Works is available for download on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes. (Books must be read on an iOS device.) Crowbar is the most feared member of the Brotherhood by every gang in the city... including his own. After a brutal gang war reveals a traitor with in the Brotherhood's ranks, Crowbar is tasked with finding out who it is. But Crowbar has secrets of his own. Secrets his mission threatens to expose. Secrets that could lead to his downfall. To read more, please click here.

REMEMBERING LOUKIA RIKAKI Innovative filmmaker, author, and Director of Health Film Festival and Ecofilms, Loukia Rikaki died on December 28 after battling with cancer at age 50. Rikaki's film HOLD ME screened at LAGFF in 2009. Her loss saddens us deeply.

2012 SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN Orpheus Award statuette designed by Miltos Papastergiou. LAGFF accepts films by Greek filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus and the world; films about Greece or with a prevalent Greek theme; and films with an important contributor of Greek descent (writer, producer, lead actor).  To submit your film, please click here.