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Montreal Greek Film Festival Presents Best of Greek Cinema


The annual Montreal Greek Film Festival (MGFF) kicks off once again on Saturday, March 24, and continues up until Sunday, April 1 ending with the annual Closing Night reception and gala.

The festival, now in its sixth year, will be presenting the best of contemporary and modern Greek films, with a full lineup of great movies.

Over the years, the Greek community as well as the Greater Montreal community at large, have developed an interest in Greek films and the festival has rapidly grown, both in size and popularity.

All films are in Greek with English subtitles, which attracts many non-Greek residents of Montreal.

This year’s festival consists of a wide variety of films including dramas, comedies, documentaries, mysteries and biographies. The festival will also be showcasing 10 short films from up-and-coming young Greek film directors.

The film lineup this year is as follows:

The Other Me (Eteros Ego)

2016. Director: Sotiris Tsafoulias. Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
(This murder mystery — a rare genre for Greek cinema — is about a lonely professor of criminology who has agreed to help the police with an investigation.)

Roza Of Smyrna                                                                                                     2016. Director: George Kordellas. Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
(This film which was a blockbuster hit in both Greece and Turkey, is about the mysterious Roza, who is the matriarch of a once powerful family and who holds an even more powerful secret.)

Kazantzakis
2017. Director: Yannis Smaragdis. Running Time: 2 hours
(This film is about the true story of the greatest Greek author of the 20th century, Nikos Kazantzakis, based on his autobiography ‘Report to Greco’.)

Lines
2016. Director: Vassilis Mazomenos. Running Time: 1 hour 22 minutes
(This film is about a homeless man, a farmer, a politician, a husband caring for his sick wife, a career woman, a factory owner and the President of Greece himself – seven people with seven very different stories that take centre stage in Vassilis Mazomenos’ look at how the Greek economic crisis affected – and continues to affect – those on the frontline.)

At this year’s festival there will also be three movies by Canadian film directors, which include:

Danae Elon’s The Patriarch’s Room, a riveting documentary about what really happened to the former Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos;

Dannis Koromilas’ Greece Year Zero, an epic documentary that compresses 200 tumultuous years of Greek history into 77 fascinating minutes; and

Tony Assimakopoulos’ A Walk in Park Ex, a documentary about Park Ex, Montreal’s storied immigrant neighborhood.

In addition to these films, the festival will be bringing back last year’s blockbuster which sold out, Our Maria Callas, by Babis Tsokas, which is a dramatized documentary highlighting the Hellenic origins of the great Greek diva.

This year’s festival will be showcasing Greek-Canadian talent with films from directors from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. After each film there will be a Q & A session for those interested in finding out more.

Greek Reporter spoke with president and organizer of the Montreal Greek Film Festival, John Caoussias, who told us that the festival is produced with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Montreal, and in partnership with the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal, which consists of over 70,000 people.

Caoussias also added that the Montreal Greek Film Festival, which has over 1,500 members on its Facebook page, is a 10-day event that is one of the city’s largest Greek events, and quite possibly the largest, if not the only, annual Greek film festival in Canada.

2017 Montreal Greek Film Festival Opening Ceremony

In 2017, the festival had a record weekly attendance of over 2,000 people.  Over 400  moviegoers attended the Closing Night reception to watch Christoforos Papakaliatis’ blockbuster ‘Worlds Apart’, starring J.K. Simmons.

Much media attention was given to the festival in 2017, and the organizers were guests on Breakfast Television, CTVs What’s On with Christine Long, as well as on CBC Radio One’s Homerun with Sue Smith.

In 2017, MGFF was also invited as featured guests on MIKE FM’s “MG Live” radio show every day that the festival was on.

2017 Montreal Greek Film Festival – Closing Ceremony

And, like every year, the Montreal Greek Film Festival will be holding the closing night reception/gala at the Rialto Theatre, where food, drink and an amazing film await.

Daily screenings:

12:00 – 10:00 p.m.
6700 Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal, QC

Closing Night reception/gala
Sunday, April 1, 2018
5723 Av du Parc, Montréal, QC

Tickets are available on the MGFF web site: http://mgff.ca/tickets-2018/

 

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