GREEK ORTHODOX COMMUNITY OF NSW LTD
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ESTABLISHED 1898 ABN 50 000 018 128
206 – 210 Lakemba Street, Lakemba NSW 2195 –PO Box 324
Tel: (02)9750 0440 – (02)9740 6022 – Fax: (02) 9740 6362
MEDIA RELEASE –
4th September 2009
16th GREEK FILM FESTIVAL OF SYDNEY
OPENS WITH A BANG!!
9-20 SEPTEMBER AT PALACE NORTON STREET CINEMAS, Leichhardt
The 16th Annual Greek Film Festival of Sydney will open with the premiere of
Christine Crokos’ romantic comedy, Bang Bang Wedding.
Starring Australia’s own Alex Dimitriades, Bang Bang Wedding is a fast
paced, light hearted and stylish road trip set against a spectacular backdrop in
Crete. When Ilias (Alex Dimitriades) and Marina (Faye Xyla) arrive to the
island of Crete to marry, they are eagerly awaited by friends and family. On
the way to the reception, however, things start to go wrong… A small, yet
important typo on the invitation will send everyone in different directions and
transform the celebrations into the unknown.
The two-week festival, starting Wednesday September 9th, will take place at
Palace Norton Street Cinemas, will feature an extraordinary assortment of
genres to accommodate all tastes, covering everything from comedy, to
drama
to
documentaries
and will close on Sunday 20th
September with Nia
Vardalos’ My Life in Ruins. The films are a credit to the diversity of talent in
Greek cinema, for both actors and directors.
Festival highlights include; Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the
2009 Cannes Film Festival, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth which sees a
desperate father try to protect his three grown children from becoming
contaminated by the outside world by confining them to a surreal domestic
fantasy land.
Winner of numerous awards (including Audience Award and FIPRESCI Prize)
at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival PVC-1, Spiros Stathoulopoulos’
gripping directorial debut is inspired by a true story about a pipe bomb
improvised explosive device that was placed around the neck of an extortion
victim.
Meanwhile Strella: A Womans Way pushes the boundaries in it’s depiction of
an extraordinary and spell binding relationship, in the glowing nights of
Athens; and lies are unravelled in Panos Karkanevatos’ Well Kept Secrets:
Athanasia, which won the critics’ FIPRESCI Prize at last year’s Thessaloniki
Film Festival.
Australia provides a hearty mix of short films including Bombshell, directed
by Kim Farrant and starring Tony Nikolakopoulos and Zoe Carides; AFI Award
Winning Spike-Up, directed by Anthony Maras; Pontos by Peter Stefanidis in
which a Pontian farmer suffers an attack by a Turkish soldier that kicks off a
catastrophic chain of events; while Sotiris Dounoukos provides us with 2
strong shorts Mona Lisa and Paper and Sand.
The full program is available and tickets are on sale now through MCA
The Greek Film Festival of Sydney is an event of the Greek Festival of
Sydney, and an initiative of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW. For
Media Contact: Dimitra Lafazanos (02) 9750 0440/ 0405 533480
greekfestival@goc.com.au
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