LOS ANGELES – The red carpet Closing Night of the 16th Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF) took place on May 15 with great success. The screening of Araceli Lemos’ award-winning Holy Emy, the Orpheus Awards and Reception at the state-of-the-art Silver Screen Theatre at the Pacific Design Center included VIPs, celebrities, dignitaries, along with many filmmakers from Greece. Guests enjoyed music by popular DJ Yiannis Markoulakis, Greek cuisine from Pietris Bakery, and signature cocktails by Kástra Elión Vodka.

Festival Director Aris Katopodis opened the ceremony with a warm welcome for the sold out audience. “What an exceptional Festival week we have had – we are back and we are better than ever,” exclaimed Katopodis. The Awards Ceremony was co-hosted by LAGFF Board Members Lia Bozonelis and Alex Kalognomos.

LAGFF 2022 consisted of 64 films, including 25 female filmmakers and showcasing eight world premieres, five international premieres, seven North American premieres, nine West Coast premieres, 13 U.S. premieres, 10 Los Angeles premieres, and 14 animated films. The virtual portion of the Festival continues through Sunday, May 22, including online access internationally for 50% of the films.

The winners of the Orpheus Awards were presented at the in-person ceremony after two virtual editions.

Holy Emy won Best Feature Film and its director Araceli Lemos won for Best Director.

The Audience Award for Feature Film went to Smyrna, My Beloved.

Best Performance went to Angeliki Papoulia for Patchwork.

The Students of Umberto Primo by Alessandra Maioletti won Best Documentary.

The Audience Award, Documentary went to Outer Space Kids.

To Vancouver by Artemis Anastasiadou won Best Short Film while Nexting by Karina Logotheti took home the Audience Award for Short Film.

From the Balcony by Aris Kaplanidis and Elias Roumeliotis won Best Animated Film.

Nikos Zegkinoglou and Aris Servetalis received Honorable Mentions for their roles in 18 and Pack of Sheep, respectively; Special Jury Mentions went to the documentaries How to Train an Antihero by Yannis Bletas and Memento by Nikos Ziogas; Brutalia – Days of Labour by Manolis Mavris and Memoir of a Veering Storm by Sofia Georgovassili earned Honorable Mentions from the short film jury; and Afterimage by Antonis Doussias earned an Honorable Mention in the animation category.

The feature film project Glory B from Greece, represented by Director/Co-Writer Konstantinos Antonopoulos and Producer Fani Skartouli, received the 8th International Project Discovery Forum (IPDF) Award. The Cypriot project Shibboleth, represented by Director/Writer Alexandra Matheou, received an Honorable Mention.

Virtual Screenings continue online and are available until Sunday, May 22.

Among the webinars available online is Preserving Cultural Identity & Artistic Diversity in the Era of Streaming Giants on Sunday, May 22, 11 AM Pacific. Netflix, Amazon and other streaming platforms are expanding throughout the world, producing original content in multiple territories. While this film and television boom has generated a lot of opportunity, it has also threatened the integrity of the local industries. How can the cultural identity and artistic diversity of local film production in a small country like Greece be protected and nurtured? How can the local film industries coexist with the global, and maintain relevance?

The participants are: Writer/Director Sabrina Doyle (UK, USA), Producer Maria Drandaki (Greece, Europe), Producer Giovanni Mastrangelo (Mediterranean, ME, Africa, Italy), Acquisitions Executive at ZDF Mirela Nastase (Romania, Germany, Europe), Filmmaker/Executive Jeremy Nocon (Philippines, USA), Producer/Distributor Dionyssis Samiotis (Greece, ME, Eastern Europe) and Moderator: Filmmaker/Mediator Carina Rosanna Tautu.

More information is available online: https://www.lagff.org/.