‘Knifer’ Beats out Greece’s Best Foreign Film Nommed ‘Attenberg’ at the 2nd Greek Cinema Awards

The 2nd Annual Awards Ceremony of the Hellenic Film Academy was held in Athens yesterday, and the big winner was the Cypriot director Yannis Economides with his third feature film, “Macherovgaltis” (Knifer).

Knifer competed against the Venice Film Festival winners and favorites, Attenberg and Hora Proelefsis (Homeland) and still managed to win seven awards out of the nine that has been nominated including Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Economides’ black and white drama is about Nikos, an ordinary guy, who after his father’s sudden death decides to go live and work with his uncle in the suburbs of Athens. Nikos also accepts his uncle’s offer which consists of protecting two purebred dogs from the hostile neighbors. Knifer also won the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound and Best Film Editing.

Syllas Tzoumerkas’ Hora Proelefsis (Homeland) was originally the Academy’s favorite film with 12 nominations, but it managed to win only 5 of them. Homeland depicts the corruption of a dysfunctional Greek family and this is a straight contrast of a country that is also falling apart. Tzoumerkas’ first feature film, which was praised after its premiere during the last Venice Critic’s Week, was awarded with the prizes of Best Directorial Debut, Best Supporting Actress for Ioanna Tsirigouli, Best Original Score, Best Make Up and Best Film Editing.

The most internationally acclaimed film of the ceremony was without doubt Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg, and surprisingly the Academy decided to nominate it for only 4 awards. Just like her Best Leading Actress award in Venice, Ariane Labed claimed the only prize for the film. Nevertheless, the Film Academy decided to select Attenberg as the official submission of Greece for the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Finally Sotiris Goritsas’ satire of Greece’s public health care system Ap’ta Kokala Vgalmena (Coming from the Bones) was nominated for 8 awards and won 3 of them. Best Leading and Supporting Actors for Argyris Xafis and Dimitris Imellos and the Best Film Editing.

Another competitor of the 67th Venice Film Festival was awarded, and that was Yorgos Zois, with his short feature film “Casus Belli”. The short film that comments the today’s financial crisis, won the homonymous Greek prize via the hands of Yorgos Lanthimos. Also Rea Apostolides and Yuri Averov were the producers of the Best Documentary Film Ta Paidia Den Paizei (The Game Must Go On). This year’s honorary prize was given to Mihalis Kakogiannis (Stella, Alexis Zorbas) for his film career.

The ceremony was dedicated to Thanasis Vengos who passed away yesterday at the age of 84. Vengos was the last of the classic Greek actors and he was undoubtedly the most popular and well known comedian of the last 50 years starring in more than 130 films. He also appeared as a supporting actor in Theo Angelopoulos’ To Vlemma tou Odyssea (Ulysses’ Gaze).

Unfortunately the 2nd Ceremony of Greek Cinema Awards was characterized by the lack of interest on behalf of the academy members since only half of them have voted, also nominees and winners were absent last night, Economides included. Finally it seems that the Academy hasn’t got a clear view on the value of the awards since it decides to promote Attenberg for Oscars even though Knifer was the big winner. Probably they regard Attenberg as a film of international value instead of Knifer which is best suited for domestic market.