First annual film festival kicks off tomorrow
OVER 130 films will be screened over the next four days in Cyprus’ first International Film Festival, which is hoped to become a major yearly event for international filmmakers and cinemagoers.
Organisers said that the Cyprus International Film Festival (CIFF), which takes place Friday to Monday in Nicosia, Limassol, and Larnaca, aims to “combine the glamour of the Cannes International Film Festival with the innovative, young, raw talent of the Sundance Festival”.
Only directors who have made three films or less are entitled to enter their films into the festival. CEO and founder of CIFF Petra Terzi told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that this was because the festival focuses on “rising stars”.
“The philosophy of festival is not to be commercial but to give new film directors from all over the world an opportunity to be recognised.”
Out of over 400 movies submitted, 136 movies from 40 countries were selected to compete in the festival. There are six competition categories: Feature Film (all genres), Documentary, Short Film, Commercial, Music Video and Video Art. Winners will be screened at other international film festivals.
Films from about 15 awarded Cypriot directors are also to be screened in the festival, including full-length features like The Cherry Orchard by Michael Kakoyannis and short films like Malgaat by Theodoros Panayides.
“It’s a great opportunity for Cypriot directors to network,” Terzi said.
The main prize will be the ‘Golden Aphrodite’, a £10,000 award to the director of the best feature film. But as with most prizes granted by the Greek gods, the award does carry a condition: the money must be put towards directing part or all of a film in Cyprus.
CIFF is receiving £10,000 from the CTO, £10,000 from Cultural Services (which will go towards the ‘Golden Aphrodite’ prize) and about £8,000 from the private sector. But Terzi estimated that the total amount contributed to the festival, which includes discounts and non-cash assistance, is around £140,000.
“The rest will come from us as we are a private company,” Terzi said. “Since it is our first year, we will have losses.”
Terzi said that monetary restrictions prevented them from bringing some of the celebrity figures whom they had hoped would attend.
At a press conference last month CIFF organiser Nora Hadjisotiriou told the Cyprus Mail that Francis Ford Coppola had been invited in November and said that he would come if his schedule allowed it.
“These people are very active and at the moment we don’t have money to pay for cancellation fees,” Terzi said.
But she said that the “VIP jury” consists of “important experts”, including founder of the New York Film and Video Festival Stuart Alson, Cinematographer Phaedon Papamichael (Walk the Line) and President and CEO of August Entertainment and CEO films LLC Gregory Cascante.
One of the high-profile guests billed for CIFF, head of the “Classic Cannes” section of the Cannes festival Van Papadopoulos, will be unable to attend.
In conjunction with the screenings, satellite events will take place including a one-act play, exhibitions on photography, painting and sculpture, conferences on DVD distribution and television directive legislation, four-hour workshops on Special Effects and Make up for Movies, and a two-day six-hour scriptwriting seminar.
The organisers have been working on the festival since 2001. Terzi said that the idea for the festival came shortly after September 11, 2001 when a Hollywood producer friend who had finished filming in Greece was unable to fly to the United States due to the cancelled flights. Instead he took up Terzi’s invitation to visit Cyprus.
Upon arrival, he mentioned to her that Cyprus would be an excellent place to stage a film festival.
“It comes just after the Berlin festival and before Cannes and it’s low season so accommodation is cheaper,” Terzi said.
What you need to know
When: Films will be screened from Friday to Sunday from 10am to 2am (16 continuous hours per day) and on Monday from 10 am to 6pm.
Where: K-Cineplex cinema theatres in Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia and at CineStudio and the UNESCO Room of Intercollege on a limited schedule.
How Much: Entrance for all four days of the festival is £30. Students and members of the Cinema Club pay £20. The one-day cost is £10.
For information and a schedule of films: http://www.ciff2006.com/
For questions, email: [email protected] or call (357) 99 798 112
Festival Ceremonies
Last night marked the opening of a photographic exhibition in Kasteliotissa by the official film festival photographer Vangelis Rassias on the Byzantine forts of Greece. Rassias has photographed other film festivals, including Cannes. The exhibition will be open until March 28.
Although films will begin being screened on Friday morning at 10am, the opening ceremony will take place at K-Cineplex Larnaca on Friday at 8pm with Culture Minister Pefkios Georgiades and Cyprus Tourism Organisation Chairman Photis Photiou, followed by a screening of Oscar-nominated Transamerica.
On Saturday a festival-related concert of new musical groups and festivities will take place on the seafront promenade near the Limassol mediaeval castle from 7pm to midnight.
On Sunday morning there will be special screenings for children in Patticheion theatre in Limassol starting at 10am. Admission is free.
The ‘red-carpet’ awards ceremony will take place in Nicosia’s Municipal Theatre on Monday night.
“It will be a Hollywood-style performance,” Terzi said.
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