The Greek films of the 66th TIFF!

We are delighted to unveil the 32 full-length films and the 30 short films screened at the 66th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, within the framework of the Greek Film Festival. For yet another year, the Festival offers its longstanding support to Greek cinema and the Greek filmmakers through a series of targeted and innovative actions and initiatives.

A total of 29 Greek films will celebrate their premiere at the 66th TIFF, nine of which take part in the Festival’s competition section. The films Beachcomber by Aristotelis Maragkos, Bearcave by Krysianna Papadakis and Stergios Dinopoulos, and Gorgonà by Evi Kalogiropoulou take part in the International Competition section. Another three Greek films, Life in a Beat by Amerissa Basta, Novak by Harry Lagoussis and Smaragda - I Got Thick Skin and I Can’t Jump by Emilios Avraam, were selected for the Meet the Neighbors+ competition section. Last but not least, three Greek films are included in the >>Film Forward competition section, Female by Konstantinos Menelaou, Regan by Panos Katsimperis and Zealotis by Stelios Repanis.

The Greek Film Festival is held as designated by the law. The members of the advisory committee assigned with the preselection of the films of the Greek Film Festival were: Iosifina Grivea, film critic, Maria Kontogianni, producer and Orfeas Peretzis, film director.

Independent awards

The Greek Film Festival is bestowing a series of independent prizes and awards, with the aim of reinforcing Greek cinema.

Τhe FISCHER Audience Awards.

The EKKOMED (Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center) Award, accompanied by a

5,000-euro cash prize, granted to a debutant director, in a Greek production having its premiere in the official selection (“First Run”) and the Best Location Award, accompanied by a 1,500-euro cash prize, bestowed by the Hellenic Film Commission of EKKOMED to a location manager (or a director in case of no location manager in the film) of a film by a debutant director in a Greek production premiering at the official selection.

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival, through its official selection and Agora’s initiatives, offers support to the Greek cinema community through a series of targeted actions, programmes, awards and prizes, administering a fee to all Greek films of the official selection.

Moreover, it carries on boosting Greek films in their international journey, offering 3,000 euros per film to all directors who take part in the most prestigious international film festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastián, Rotterdam, New York, Tribeca, Toronto, Sundance, Busan, IDFA, Hot Docs, Nyon) with their debut or sophomore film. The most recent examples can be traced in the films Our Wildest Days by Vasilis Kekatos, screened at the Berlinale, Bearcave by Krysianna Papadakis and Stergios Dinopoulos, and Gorgonà by Evi Kalogiropoulou, screened at the Venice Film Festival.

The Festival is also providing an invaluable chance to Greek directors to showcase their work before professionals from the international field. Movies from this year’s Greek production will be screened at Cinando online platform – one of the most important tools for cinema professionals on a worldwide scale.

Universally Accessible Screenings

The Festival’s goal is to share the magic of cinema with the entirety of the audience, with no exceptions. To this end, the Festival hosts screenings of films with Audio Description for the Blind and the Visually Impaired and with Subtitles for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing both in the physical and the online screenings.

With the valuable support of Alpha Bank, the Festival’s Accessibility Sponsor, two landmark films of the Greek cinema will be rendered universally accessible. In particular, the Festival’s audience will have the chance to watch the landmark films of contemporary Greek cinema, Take Care (1990) and Stelios (2024), screened within the framework of the Festival’s tribute to the work of Yorgos Tsemberopoulos.

Take Care (1990), written by Vassilis Alexakis and Yorgos Tsemberopoulos, is based on the titular novel by Yovanna. Seeing his dream to become a singer in the big city crumble, a young man will find a job at a butcher shop and inadvertently act as a catalyst in the life of three women. Small insignificant dramas played out every day without ever hitting the news. The setting is the archetypal "Athenian apartment", a futile test tube where needs, dreams, and passions stir. Starring Alkis Kourkoulos, Ketty Papanika, Nikos Dimitratos, Tania Tripi, Vanna Barba and Kostas Koklas, the film was bestowed with the 1991 Greek National Awards 1991 in the Best Film, Best Screenplay, Leading Actress, Leading Actor and Supporting Actor categories.

Yorgos Tsemberopoulos’ most recent film, Stelios (2024), written by Katerina Bei, is a homage to the prolific Greek singer Stelios Kazantzidis. The touching story of a child from a Pontic refugee family who managed to survive and thrive against all odds, thanks to his immense talent and resilience in the face of social and personal challenges. Music, love, family, friends, fishing, creativity, people of the night, hardcore fans, and intense conflicts come together to create the mosaic of his life. The film won the 2025 Iris Awards for Supporting Actress and Best Costume Design.

The programme of the universally accessible screenings will be available in Braille. Moreover, a total of 30 Greek films will be screened with embedded dialogue-based subtitles, allowing the deaf and hard-of-hearing audience to watch the films. The movies will also be available featuring Greek subtitles at the Festival’s online platform.

After the curtain call of its 66th edition, the Festival and Alpha Bank will concede all the processed subtitles and the audio description to the films’ producers, in order for the films to remain universally accessible in their future screenings, in the movie theaters or in any other form or medium. The above action is carried out in the hope that through the Festival’s support the films will be distributed in universally accessible terms both in the movie theaters and in the home film distribution for everyone to enjoy with no restrictions.

Special Screening

Thessaloniki International Film Festival hosts a special screening. Specifically, Electra7 (2025) will be screened, an imaginative cinematic relay which is inspired by Sophocles’ Electra. The film was directed by seven distinguished film auteurs, both women and men: Sofia Exarchou, Christina Ioakeimidi, Babis Makridis, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Elina Psykou, Alexandros Voulgaris (The Boy), Neritan Zinxhiria.

The Athens Epidaurus Festival’s seventy-year celebration takes centre stage joining forces with the Hellenic Film Academy to produce a film inspired by Sophocles’ Electra. Part of the fruitful Contemporary Ancients Cycle, the film consists of seven chapters, each one directed by a different filmmaker. Seven distinguished film auteurs, both women and men, with a track record in Greek and international film festivals, were selected to represent the diverse landscape of contemporary Greek filmmaking and contribute their unique perspectives to this imaginative cinematic relay.

Electra and Orestes stand accused of murdering their mother. Yet, in present-day Greece, it is not the gods who deliver justice, but mere mortals—seemingly powerless to piece together the truth.

Discover the latest Greek production:

First Run

Films celebrating their premiere at the Festival, featuring the cream of the crop of this year's Greek production. We present the Greek films of the 66th TIFF.

International Competition

Beachcomber

Aristotelis Maragkos

Elias dreams of building a boat from scrap metal, chasing the shadow of his sailor father's legacy. But as his creation crumbles, so does the myth he’s built around himself – forcing him to confront the fragile truth of who he really is.

Bearcave

Krysianna B. Papadakis, Stergios Dinopoulos

Argyro and Anneta are two best friends living in the Greek mountain village of Tirna. Once Anneta reveals that she’s pregnant and planning to skip town with her cop boyfriend, Argyro, devastated, dares her to embark on a hike into the legendary Bearcave.

Gorgonà

Evi Kalogiropoulou

In a timeless dystopian future, in a patriarchal city-state plagued by violence and environmental pollution, two women rebel and fight for their freedom and identity, transforming themselves into symbols of resistance and transformation.

Meet the Neighbors+

Life in a Beat

Amerissa Basta

Lena is a 20 year old woman who lives in Athens, works at a local supermarket and lives with her family. As their home is poor, always messy and full of tension, she wants to move out and start a life of her own. Everything changes for Lena when she gets fired from her job and at the same time she finds out that she is pregnant.

Novak

Harry Lagoussis

Dr. Novak, a former Croatian neuroscientist, lives closed off from the world in the heart of Athens, haunted by a mysterious past. When a group of idealistic young scientists revive his forgotten work, he is drawn into their collective, driven by a bold mission to live in a world shielded from the unseen forces of electromagnetic pollution.

Smaragda – I Got Thick Skin and I Can’t Jump

Emilios Avraam

Smaragda is broke, lovelorn, and stuck in the past—with only a guide dog for company. Desperate for change, she dives into the chaotic world of social media while reluctantly working as a children's entertainer at a tourist resort, encountering both fame and backlash as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

>>Film Forward

Female

Konstantinos Menelaou

Alice was an iconic figure in Greek film and theater, an enigmatic pop culture phenomenon, a woman trapped between her public image and her personal reality. Through a multifaceted approach, the film unveils the truth behind her meticulously constructed persona, while exploring the contradictions and social dynamics that shaped her journey.

Regan

Panos Katsimperis

A troubled young woman, an artist and a painter, gives birth to a deformed infant, following an unwanted pregnancy forced upon her. She now has to come in terms with herself, living in two parallel realities.

Zealotis

Stelios Repanis

Iosif and Vicky go to his parents' house to clean it up. In the outdoor space, they find Antonis, with whom Iosif develops a friendly but also tense relationship.

The following films will also have their premiere in the Festival, as part of the First Run section:

Cries

Petros Sevastikoglou

Three women drift through a paralysis of boredom. Their stillness is the mark of a socially imposed emotional disability, while the times demand unrest and revolt. Wild Nature becomes their ally, the ground where their instincts are finally unleashed. A wedding ignites their clash with what society accepts as normal. They resist, struggling to invent a new space for love. The eruption that follows is dangerous, terrifying, yet ecstatic and liberating. No winners no losers, only the lingering echo of a creative upheaval.

Diversion

Marinos Kartikkis

Kostas is a divorced, indebted policeman who carries the dead to the morgue. One day he steals a cross from a deceased elder woman he was called to transport, only to discover she was his partner’s grandmother.

Don't Laugh, They'll See You

Nicholas Dimitropoulos

Maria, who lives on an island, discovers she is pregnant when she visits her religious sister in Athens for their mother’s memorial service. The unexpected pregnancy at forty and an unexpected encounter make her realize that only by coming to terms with her choices can she “laugh, no matter what the world says.”

Endless Land

Vassilis Mazomenos

In an Epirote village, Lazarus is killed by accident during a hunt. His pregnant wife gives birth soon after, and the child is named after him. Growing up, young Lazarus marries Chaido but later emigrates in search of work. Though he loses touch with home, their grandchildren now keep traditions alive.

I Will Love You in November

Sotiris Stamatis

On a cold November night, three couples face pivotal moments in their relationships. Margarita and Spyros reunite after a long silence following their breakup. Mary and Petros confront growing tensions and unresolved issues. Nina and Stelios, newly acquainted, spend the night exploring the city and their own uncertainties.

Little Man-Eater

Yannis Fagras

Penniless at the end of another tourist season, Panos and Jimmy grasp the chance for an easy buck aboard Captain Nico’s tired sailboat. As she navigates the east Aegean in search of sunken treasure, their secret aspirations quickly unravel. Suspicion, greed and the brutality of Greece’s sea border will force a change of course for this motley crew.

Madonnas

The Callas – Lakis & Aris Ionas

Nancy inherits a vintage caravan, and with her friend, Georgina, they embark on a road trip. They come up with the crazy idea of turning it into a brothel for women. The search for dick ends when they find a traveler, and together they launch “Madonna.” They resist conservatism with humor, love and solidarity. “Madonna, you pussies!”

Mahi

Elias Giannakakis

Mahi (greek female name also meaning battle) an 75-years old woman is a former military officer who underwent gender reassignment and became a singer. 50 years later, she returns from Germany to Greece to reconnect with her daughter in a challenging attempt to rebuild their relationship.

Maricel

Elias Demetriou

A Filipino domestic worker is called to take care of an elderly couple in a Cypriot mountain village. What begins as a simple caregiving task gradually exposes a web of silent resentment, emotional dependency and unspoken histories, forcing her into the delicate, unsettling space between obligation and intimacy.

Patty is Such a Girly Name

Giorgos Georgopoulos

Patty, an 18-year-old judo athlete from a remote Greek island, decides to spread her wings and follow Sensei Yuri to Athens in pursuit of her Olympic dream. Along the way, she will face desire, betrayal, and painful truths that could either break her or make her stronger.

Receptions

Filippos Tsitos

A stubborn unemployed man, who would rather starve to death than betray his principles, ends up as the leader of a carefree gang that lives by sneaking into receptions to eat for free.

Ridiculous Loves

Dimitris Katsimiris

Six tragicomic stories, centered on the paradox of love. A trip in spiraling obsession and madness, consisting of swinging sessions, platonic loves, intense breakups and substitutes of human contact.

Rooster

Tassos Gerakinis

A janitor of the Municipality of Athens, determined to give his six-year-old son the future he himself was denied, enrolls him in a private school. But his chase of the “Greek dream” turns into a tragicomic spiral of conflicts, leading to a bitter revelation: perhaps his illusions were all he truly had.

The Anything

Yorgos Athanasiou

Two old friends and music lovers who travel to a quiet village in the mountains of the Peloponnese to record an improvised album. Surrounded by nature, they reconnect through music, but their plans take a mysterious turn when they hear a strange sound. As they try to capture the sound in their recordings, they find themselves caught in a mystery.

They Come Out of Margo

Alexandros Voulgaris (The Boy)

All fears, anxieties and hopes are embodied in the character of Margo, a songwriter who was once famous but who now isolates herself in her apartment. A party held to celebrate her 40th birthday and the emotions that are born there unexpectedly help Margo enter a new stage in her life.

Volume 7

Panos Pappas, Despina Charalampous

The future is just another past. In an isolated City-Building marked 7, where human knowledge is preserved in the minds of the gifted and time moves in endless loops, a young man reappears again and again, confronting love, rebellion, and the elusive promise of escape. A woman, who meets him each time, becomes the mirror of this repetition, keeping alive the fragile hope that something might finally change.

Winter Sea

Nikos Kornilios

In a former mining town, geologist Nadine meets Christos, a descendant of miners, and Katerina, the only woman fisher in the region. Together they weave an unexpected bond, fragile yet profound. Against a landscape heavy with memory, they struggle to break free from the past and the weight of history, daring to embrace an uncertain present.

Crossing Borders

“Crossing Borders” sub-section hosts the premieres of three films related to Greece that were shot in Greece or abroad.

Maya and Samar

Anita Doron

Samar is a queer Afghan who lives in Athens, dancing in a club for cash, following an escape from the Taliban. After meeting Maya, a Canadian journalist at a rave, their worlds collide in an affair that exposes their conflicting cultures. Maya crafts her latest headline; while Samar crafts an unexpected twist, exposing the truth behind privilege.

Cast Aside the Clouds

Mary Darling, Bre Vader, Felicia Sobhani

In the shadows of persecution in modern-day Iran, Layla, a determined young Bahá’í woman, and Sasan, a secular Muslim doctor, fall in love against all odds—risking imprisonment, betrayal, and heartbreak as they fight to define their love in a society that forbids it.

Tender

Ari Bafalouka

Three people come in touch through an application that provides tenderness-on-demand. As the boundaries between the virtual and the real begin to blur, an unexpected connection emerges between them — one that helps them confront their unresolved emotional needs and the mistakes of their past.

A Second Viewing

The Great Massacre of Alimos

Athan Tom Sklavos

The movie follows an LGBTQI+ film crew making a documentary about an explosion that killed 70 senior citizens at an elderly home. One of the three main suspects carried out a suicide mission, taking everyone else with them. But which one?

Our Wildest Days

Vasilis Kekatos

Chloe forgoes her flawed family for a group of younsters crossing Greece. Through her journey she helps the poor in unconventional ways, faces danger and wonders if tenderness is the ultimate act of rebellion.

Greek Short Films

Finally, as each year, the Festival will present the awarded Greek films from all national and international sections of Drama International Short Film Festival. The awarded short films will also be screened at a special section in the Film Market, accessible by sales agents and representatives of international short film festivals.

The 30 movies that will be screened are:

400 Cassettes - Direction: Thelyia Petraki

At the Market - Direction: Kostas Fountas Aloupogiannis

Atlantic - Direction: Alexander Stamatiadis

Carcass - Direction: Makis Sebos

Dust to Dust - Direction: Dimitris Papathanasis

Fall Christmas - Direction: Kostas Bakouris

Green - Direction: Dimitris Iosifidis Xokmetidis

He Who Once Was - Direction: Kostis Theodosopoulos

I'm Glad You’re Dead Now - Direction: Tawfeek Barhom

Last Tropics - Direction: Thanasis Troboukis

Leaving Was What She Did Best - Direction: Vasilis Pantelidis