Eftyhia

Source: Tanweer Productions

‘Eftyhia’

Eftyhia, a biopic of celebrated Greek songwriter Eftyhia Papagianopoulou, scooped eight awards including best film at the at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (HELFIAC) awards last night (April 14).

The ceremony was conducted online, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and broadcast by public TV network ERT.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Directed by Angelos Frantzis, Eftyhia went into the night with 13 nominations and picked up awards including best actor for Pygmalion Dadakaridis, supporting actress for Katia Goulioni and supporting actor for Thanos Tokakis.

The film, produced by Donysis Samiotis for Athens-based Tanweer Productions, performed strongly at the Greek box office when it was released in December. Tanweer also distributed the biopic, which generated 650,000 admissions. (For comparison, Joker,  the highest-grossing film of the year drew 950,000 admissions).

It marked another strong year for director Frantzis, whose Still River won three Iris Awards in 2019.

This year’s awards also saw crime thriller The Miracle Of The Sargasso Sea win two prizes for director Syllas Tzoumerkas and actress Angeliki Papoulia.

The film, which debuted at the Berlinale in 2019 in the Panorama section, was produced by Maria Drandaki for Greece’s Homemade Films and co-produced with the Netherlands’ PRPL, Germany’s unafilm and Sweden’s Dragon Films.

Other features that picked up two awards included Rinio Dragassaki’s fantasy drama Cosmic Candy and drama Winona, directed by Alexandros Voulgaris (aka The Boy).

The awards represented a healthy crop of local productions, which may not be the case next year due to the pandemic halting all film shoots as well as pre-production in Greece.

Giorgos Tsemberopoulos, president of Hellenic Film Academy, told Screen the organisation is considering “extending submission deadlines to allow consideration for films delayed by the pandemic”.

Full list of winners

Best feature film, fiction - Eftyhia

Best feature film, documentary - When Tomatoes Met Wagner

Director - Syllas Tzoumerkas, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea

Screenplay - Zacharias Mavroidis, The Defunct

First time director - Rinio Dragassaki, Cosmic Candy

Actress - Angeliki Papoulia, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea

Actor - Pygmalion Dadakaridis, Eftyhia

Supporting actress - Katia Goulioni, Eftyhia

Supporting actor - Thanos Tokakis, Eftyhia

Cinematography - Christina Moumouri, Zizotek

Editing - Nikos Pastras, Winona

Production design - Mihalis Samiotis, Giannis Papadopoulos, Eftyhia

Costumes - Ioulia Stavridou, Eftyhia

Music score - Mis Trichromi, The Boy (aka Alexandros Voulgaris) for Winona

Sound - Nikos Bougioukos, Kostas Varybopiotis, Ari Louziotis, Eftyhia

Make up - Dimitra Giatrakou, Eftyhia

Special effects - Giorgos and Roulis Alahouzos, Giannis Angeladopoulos, Andreas Helmis, Giorgos Foukarakis for Cosmic Candy

Short film, fiction - Electric Swan, Konstantina Kotzamani

Short film, documentary - The Handwrestler, Giorgos Gousis

Short film animationHeatwave, Fokion Xnos