"Who beamed up all these people?" festival-goers may ask, as they try to get tickets to the most talked-about films, or squeeze into the Olympion. Even though the weekend has passed, cinemas continue to fill up.

Paranormal Activities
Palm-reading and strange global connections are found in the two international competition films debuting today. First in Taiwanese "Mirror Image"(3.30pm), fate and chance battle it out. A man whose lifeline was erased from his palm in an accident is confronted by a girlfriend who finds palm-reading essential. Then, in Aliki Danezi-Knutsen's "Bar" (8pm), a woman leads a double life - moving mysteriously between Nicosia and Montevideo.

Loving the Alien
Three new Greek films make their world premieres at the festival. Freddy Vianellis' "Refection on the Role" (1.30pm) shows an actress who gets too involved in a play about infidelity. Maria Mavrikou's "Apeke" (5.30pm) is a look at Greeks living in Albania shot between 1991 and 2000. Stratos Tzitzis' "Rescue Me" (10.30pm) is the documentary-like story about a woman who's only loved once. Meanwhile the Stavros Tornes Retro continues with two 1981 short films (11.30am) and "Coatti" (11.30am).

Balkan Metamorphosis
Harry apparently becomes a tree in Goran Paskaljevic's talked-about new film (3.30pm). Then, in "The Cashier Wants to Go to the Seaside" (8.30pm), a waitress who saves a store from theft, is given a few days off. Trouble appears as her boss hires a new girl. Meanwhile yesterday, red-headed actress Nikola Kujaka spoke in glowing terms of working with director Milcho Manchevski on "Dust". She noted that film production in FYROM is minimal, with only two films made every five years. In that context working with Manchevski was like "a gift from some other place." Though she had worked on Michael Winterbottom's "Welcome to Sarajevo" and performed on stage, the film was a positive experience.

Teenage Werewolf
There were a few groans as a sheep's neck is slit in the opening shot of Damien Odoul's "Deep Breath". Talk about a shocking introduction to the world of the dangerously restless teen David! In the film, David finds few kind words from his industrious uncles, but instead turns up the hip-hop on his walkman and wastes time. When the grown-ups decide to make him a man, by getting him drunk, he hallucinates. Thus alcohol is the clever excuse to give deeper dimensions to a realistic picture of farm life. The film, which took the Venice jury prize, was the director's first feature. He chose black and white for several reasons: it's less realistic than color, dream-like and refers to early cinema. A lively discussion after yesterday's screening revealed his thoughts on his generation's love/hate relationship with American culture, the symbols in his film and what it means to be alive. "That is my family," the director noted of the vivid non-actors in the film. His uncle and other people he knows appear in the production.

Early Explorers
There will be a special awards ceremony at 8.30pm for Dinos Dimopoulos, one of the most important directors of Greek cinema's Golden Age. It will precede the screening of his 1957

film "The Little Coach". In that film, drivers of horse-drawn
carriages must transform themselves as cars begin their stranglehold of Athens. Meanwhile, his "Amaryllis" plays at 3.30pm.

Unidentified Flying Posters
UFA, or Universum Film AG, pre-war Germany's most important film production company, left behind not only classics like "Metropolis" but stunning posters. This graphic art is on display at Warehouse D through to November 18.

Men from Venus, Women from Mars
Three of Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's works are screening at this year's festival. Born in Tehran in 1954, she studied film direction before rising through the ranks of state television. Though she started with comedies that had women in the background, she's switched to dramas with struggling, strong women in the spotlight. Today "The Blue Veiled" plays (at 3.30pm). It's about the relationship of a wealthy older man and a young working class woman.

Is Someone Out There?
The microphone is on and you are speaking to the airwaves. 89.4 FM broadcasts live festival events and discussions.

Time Capsule
Theo Angelopoulos fans who missed last year's international symposium devoted to the director, rejoice. The notes from the event have been bound into a book called "Gazing into the World of Theo Angelopoulos". It will be officially presented at 6pm, at Warehouse C. The director will be in the midst, despite work on the first film in his new trilogy.

Take Us to Your Leader
Today John Boorman, the festival's distinguished jury president, speaks to the press (and any one else brave enough to grab the microphone) at 12.30 noon. After that, new Greek Film Center president, Diagoras Chronopoulos will talk about the crop of local films in the festival, at 1.30pm.

Little Green Men
At 6pm today, a textbook example of good mini-digital video filmmaking is being screened. "Le Chateau" is about a couple of brothers (one black, one white) from the US who inherit a castle in France. The very American pair travel to claim their prize, comically struggling with the language, each other and the castle's staff. The film was shot on a whim by director Jesse Peretz, with great results.

ET, Phone Home
Any word on who the extra-terrestrial was in the Sunday evening screening of the demanding Argentine film "Liberty"? Those who were there probably remember that this nocturnal character considered it his duty to loudly crack jokes, hoot and clap. He apparently was looking for something different from what the catalogue said the film would be: a day-in-the-life of a poor lumberjack. 15-minute shots of bark-stripping clearly fit into this description. And sometimes, the director can opt not to share the thoughts of leather-faced heroes, but keep audiences guessing instead. Viva cinema that provokes!

Futuristic Visions
Yesterday director Marie Vermillard and actress Nathalie Richard spoke about making competition film "Imago". Vermillard explained that it was an effort to get away from the realism and psychoanalysis that characterizes most French cinema. Another rebellion in the film concerns gender - as she went against typically "female" or "male" reactions to events.

Quote/unquote:
"The film doesn't give any answers. I think that when we make films, we are asking questions about things that trouble us." - Marie Vermillard, director of "Imago"
"I hate color, that Kodak color film." - Damien Odoul, director of black and white "Deep Breath"

Angelike Contis
First shot, #97, 13/11/2000