This year marks 9 years since the departure of director Theo Angelopoulos. The Chania Film Festival remembers the great Greek FilmMaker and travels with his works… Theo Angelopoulos is one of the most important Directors of World Cinema, with eclectic affinities, Bergman, Antonioni and Tarkovsky. He is the Poet of Icons and his subjects concern

Melina Mercouri 18.10.1920 – 06.03.1994)

when in Greece Culture made headlines Melina Mercouri is a personality that rose above her time, expressing over time with her attitude of life and her battles for Greece, the free spirit, the great mind, the love without limits for our country, the militant resourceful man. A star who charmed people and was much loved.

Nikos Koundouros (15.12. 1926 – 22.2.2017)

The Anarchist of Cinema Visual Artist, Director, Set Designer, Screenwriter, Writer, Nikos Koundouros was a special, emblematic personality in the world of Cinema. “It’s a great thing to have been born a Cretan,” he said. A scion of a bourgeois family, son of Joseph Koundouros, a prominent lawyer, who left his mark on the political

Kostas Gavras

Greek film activist and President of Cinémathèque Française, the director Kostas Gavras, defined the boundaries of French Cinema and redefined the crime political thriller, starting in the 1960s. “Cinema plays a key role in society. I think it’s a way to get to know the world. Artists, when they appeal to thousands, sometimes millions, of

MANOS HADJIDAKIS (23/10/1925 – 15/6/1994)

MANOS HADJIDAKIS (23/10/1925 – 15/6/1994) Manos in his own words… On June 15, 1994, Manos Hadjidakis passed away, a few months after the death of Melina Mercouri. I do not know why I always connect in my mind, these two glamorous Greeks, but I think that whoever of you has seen them in the video

MICHALIS KAKOGIANNIS (1921 – 2011). The Eclectic Director 100 years since the birth of the Great Greek Cypriot Creator The Creator of “Stella”, “Zorba”, “Electra”. The man who made Greece famous internationally. Michael Cacoyannis, son of Angeliki and Panagiotis Cacoyannis, was born in Limassol, Cyprus, on June 11, 1921. He studied Law, Dramatic Arts and

The Song of Separation (1940)

“The Song of Separation” is the first contemporary talking film, which was edited in Greek workshops. The only film signed as Director by the great Greek producer, Philopoimin Finos, as well as the film in which Lambros Konstantaras makes his first appearance (Athens 13 March 1913 – Athens 28 June 1985) the important Greek actor

Buster Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966)

The Duality of Cinema Comic actor Buster Keaton became popular from his groundbreaking films in the 1920s. Joseph Frank Keaton was born in Kansas on October 4, 1895. He was the child of vaudeville actors. He acquired the nickname Buster when he was six months old. Falling from a ladder, he recovered without suffering anything.

1929 An Andalusian Dog

Luis Buñuel in 1929 joined the Surreal group of Paris. He will write about this move: “The moral and artistic intransigence of this group, the new space of its sociopolitical action, perfectly matched my temperament”. The funding for the experimental film, “Andalusian Dog” (1929) will be made by his mother, giving him 25,000 pesetas. With

Melie Museum. The Magic of Cinema

“So who is the man in our time who could live without a fairy tale, without a small dream?” said Georges Melier. The magic of cinema is presented at the French Film Archive in Paris, through a unique Museum Exhibition, a tribute to the pioneering Creator Melier. In the spaces of the Film Archive, which

1956 The Dragon of Nikos Koundouros

With this film, Greek cinema passed from Prehistory to History, Vassilis Rafailidis had written analyzing the Dragon. In 1956, at the Venice Film Festival, Greece was represented by the film The Dragon, directed by Nikos Koundouros. Koundouros’ masterpiece had provoked the most contradictory comments in its first screening that took place in the cinema Attikon.

Zorbas The Greek - CFF

Zorba the Greek 1964

Three leading Greek Artists narrate the Greek Myth to the ends of the world “So let’s give him our blood to come alive. Let’s do what we can live a little longer this exquisite eater, drinker, laborer, womanizer and bum. The widest soul, the surest body, the weakest cry I have ever known in my

The 1st Pro Greek Movie - CFF

In 1906, the Olympic Games take place in Athens, the so-called Mid-Olympics because they take place between the Olympic Games of 1904 and those of 1908. In the Mid-Olympics, the Greek participation does not win any medals. But cinema wins. The Games are being filmed. They are filmed by the French filmmaker Leons Schneider, a

Mafalda - Quino - CFF

The Creator of Mafalda The Spanish cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, known by the pseudonym Quino, passed away at the age of 88. His stories with Mafalda, the comic heroine he created, from 1964 to 1973, became popular with many readers in America and Europe, as well as in Greece. Stories praised for their crucial

The traces lead to Crete…

The actions of the Region of Crete for the creation of a Film Office, aiming at the implementation of film productions on the island, are well known. A project that knows steps of success. What most of us probably ignore is the fact that Crete has been used as a film set for 63 years!!!

Jean-Daniel Pollet - CFF

A “forgotten” Director is once again enjoying the spotlight, bringing once again to the fore the beauties of our country. French publications recently rediscovered director Jean-Daniel Pole, one of the pioneering figures of Nouvelle Vague, who quickly followed his lonely path, away from the dominant currents, always creating films recorded in Cinematic Culture.

Janaki Milton Manaki - CFF

1905: the “Weavers”, by the Manakis brothers. The first film to be shot in the Balkans. The first Cinematographers in the Balkans are the brothers Ioannis and Miltiadis Manakia or Manaki, who worked as photographers in Ioannina. They were born in Avdella of Grevena, Vlachochori in Northern Pindos, in 1878 Giannakis and in 1882 Miltos.

1915, The First Portable Cinema

Collecting the History of Cinema DeVry suitcase type cinema projector “Type E”, batch 1919. It has a cinema projector for 35 mm films housed in a black suitcase of 22 x 9 x 19.5 inches. The case is equipped with gates for viewing the operation of the machine, as well as multiple air vents for

Favorite Children’s Christmas Movies

The favorite children’s Christmas movies are the “must” of the Holidays. They can be enjoyed equally by children and adults who feel like children. Let’s see entertaining stories with favorite heroes that have been recorded in the World Cinema and let’s get into the “mood” of the time. A Flintstone Christmas (1977) 1977 and the

Films in Greece - CFF

Many major international film productions used the Aegean islands as film sets. These films highlighted the Aegean beauty, making Greece the ultimate tourist destination. Summer films bathed in light, waves and colors of Elytis’ poetry, which “hit red” at the Box Office, bringing thousands of tourists to our country.