‘Brides’ tops the festival awards
Pandelis Voulgaris’s big-budget historical drama «Brides» swept the State Quality Awards last night at the Greek film competition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, including the highest award, the First Prize for a Fictional Feature Film, which carries a 58,700-euro purse. The film also won the Best Actress (11,740 euros) and Best Supporting Actress (5,870 euros) awards for, respectively, Victoria Haralambidou and Evi Saoulidou, as well as all the technical awards: Cinematography by Giorgos Arvanitis (8,805 euros), set design by Dimitris Katsikis (5,870 euros), music by Stamatis Spanoudakis (5,870 eros), sound by Nikos Papadimitriou and Thymios Kolokoussis (5,870 euros), editing by Takis Yiannopoulos (5,870 euros), costume design by Damianos Zafiris and Eva Nathena (5,870 euros) and makeup by Fani Alexaki (2,935 euros). The Second Prize for a Fictional Feature Film, carrying a 44,025-euro purse, was awarded to «Rakushka,» directed by Foteini Siskopoulou, who can also boast the two best awards in terms of artistic achievement: the much-coveted title of Best Director (worth 29,350 euros) and the Best Screenplay award (14,675 euros). «Rakushka» actor Vangelis Mourikis further gleaned the Best Supporting Actor award of 5,870 euros. The third State Quality prize in the same category, worth 29,350 euros, went to «Testosterone,» directed by Giorgos Panousopoulos, with lead Dimitris Liakopoulos walking away with the Best Actor award and a 11,740-euro cash prize. The award for Best New Director, one of the most interesting in the competition and worth 14,675 euros, was awarded to Costas Haralambous for his entry, «Love at 16.» In the documentary category, the first prize of 17,610 euros went to «Marseilles, A Greek Profile,» by Marco Gastine and the second, worth 11,740 euros, was awarded to «An All-Weather Man» by Yiannis Soldatos. The competition also included a section of short films with cash prizes ranging from approximately 8,800 to 4,400 euros. In this category the first prize went to «Pilala,» directed by Theodoros Papadoulakis, the runner-up went to «0+,» directed by Aris Bafaloukas, and the third prize to «Grandpa and Grandma,» by Angelos Maderakis. Another 10 cash prizes of 2,348 euros were also given to a selection of competition shorts.
