In the same way I produced a guide to the Melbourne International Film Festival, here is a guide to the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne. It is entirely generated by AI using similar commands to the Melbourne Film Festival guide I published a couple of weeks ago, and I hope you find it useful. I’m also interested in getting feedback from people as to whether they do find it useful, and what features or changes to the way I’m doing it now would make it more useful for them.
All 49 films, rated and ranked, with sessions
The Greek Film Festival runs in Melbourne from 13 to 25 October 2026 across seven cinemas: the Astor, the Kino, Pentridge, and the Palace houses at Balwyn, Como, Penny Lane and Westgarth. The same programme plays in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra; sessions for those cities are on the festival’s own site, and the ratings here travel.
This guide rates all 49 titles from 0 to 5 and lists them best first, then repeats them alphabetically with sessions so you can find a film you have heard of. The ratings are my [Claude’s] synthesis of festival and jury records, English-language trade criticism, and Greek-language criticism — chiefly Athinorama, Flix, LiFO, Kathimerini and Cinemagazine, which is where most of these films were actually reviewed.
A word on the numbers. A festival of largely national cinema is not a curated international programme: coverage is much thinner here than at Melbourne International. Four films have a real body of criticism behind them. Roughly a dozen have two or three Greek reviews. Fourteen have none at all — no review in any language — and those are marked provisional, with the rating resting on a director’s record, an award, or the nature of the film. Treat a provisional rating as a starting prior, not a finding, and read the entry rather than the number.
One correction to the festival’s own listing: Wishbone is directed by Penny Panayotopoulou, not Stelios Repanis. Repanis directed Zealotis. The site also gives Zealotis’s synopsis on the Wishbone page, and lists Bearcave as a 2023 film of 132 minutes when the feature appears to be a 2025 premiere running 121.
By estimated merit
Broken Vein (Σπασμένη Φλέβα)
4.5/5 ★★★★½
Dir. Yannis Economides · 2025 · Greece, Cyprus · 127 min · Greek
A businessman tries to keep his house out of a loan shark’s hands with a plan he believes is watertight. It is not, and the consequences run through his family.
The Panhellenic Union of Film Critics voted this the Greek film of the year for 2025, with 33 votes out of a field that included Dimitris Nakos’s Meat and Giorgos Zois’s Arcadia. That is the single most useful fact about it. Economides has been making bleak, verbally violent studies of Greek masculinity for two decades — Matchbox, Knifer, Stratos — and this is the film that has brought his domestic critical standing to its highest point. It also did real business, over 31,000 admissions, which for a film this unforgiving is unusual.
Konstantinos Kaimakis in Kathimerini argued that Economides converts violent, dark drama into something with the texture of ancient tragedy. Christos Bakatselos at Flix was more measured, giving it 6/10 and calling it a sturdy continuation of the director’s tradition that does not quite reach his best work. Both readings are compatible: a major film by a major director, not necessarily his masterpiece. There is no English-language trade review, which says more about how Greek cinema travels than about the film.
For calibration on Economides in English, Jay Weissberg’s 2014 Variety review of Stratos found the director had “obvious gifts for image making and atmosphere” while judging that particular film beyond redemption — an assessment worth keeping in mind, since patience is the price of admission with this filmmaker.
Sessions: 17 Oct 6.00pm Kino · 20 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 23 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 24 Oct 8.20pm Pentridge
Sources: Panhellenic Union of Film Critics vote, Athens Voice · Christos Bakatselos, Flix (6/10) · Konstantinos Kaimakis, Kathimerini (via reprint) · Jay Weissberg on Stratos, Variety
Eva (Εύα)
4.4/5 ★★★★½
Dir. Maria Plyta · 1953 · Greece · 83 min · Greek with English subtitles
The one unmissable historical event in the programme. Maria Plyta was the first woman to direct a feature film in Greece, and she made seventeen of them between 1950 and 1972 against an industry that told her plainly it did not want her — the producer Filopimin Finos is quoted as telling her that a woman cannot be a director.
This 4K restoration, by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata, screened in Cannes Classics in 2026, the first restored Greek film ever selected for that strand, and at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. The restoration project’s framing is that Eva is franker about female desire, and more sceptical of postwar Greek social conformity, than its era’s cinema generally allowed — including in how it looks at the male body.
A caveat on the rating. It rests on the film’s historical standing and the seriousness of the institutions that chose to restore and programme it, not on a body of contemporary criticism, since there is essentially none in English. You are seeing a recovered film, not a new release, and it should be watched that way.
Sessions: 19 Oct 8.00pm Como
Sources: Festival de Cannes, on Eva and Maria Plyta · The Pappas Post
Hen (Κότα)
4.1/5 ★★★★
Dir. György Pálfi · 2025 · Greece · 96 min · Greek with English subtitles
Greek life told almost entirely from the point of view of a hen, filmed with real birds rather than animation. The Hungarian director György Pálfi made Hukkle and Taxidermia, and this is the film that has returned him to international attention.
It premiered in the Platform strand at Toronto in 2025 with an honourable mention, then played San Sebastián, Hamburg, Tokyo competition and Thessaloniki. Screen Daily called it “a compelling drama,” reading it as a film that draws parallels “between mankind’s ill treatment of animals and each other, critiquing a world in which living creatures are treated as nothing more than a commodity to be exploited.”
Michael Sicinski at In Review Online placed it in the recent run of animal-perspective art films — Au hasard Balthazar, EO, Gunda — while arguing that it differs from all of them in outcome: “Hen is a picaresque of unlikely triumph, one that unlike Balthasar, EO, or Gunda, ends with the mother hen outlasting her caretakers and tormentors alike.” He expected it to “put Pálfi back in the global cinema conversation.” On present evidence this is the programme’s strongest new film.
Sessions: 17 Oct 6.30pm Balwyn
Sources: Screen Daily review · Michael Sicinski, In Review Online
Bearcave (Αρκουδότρυπα)
4.0/5 ★★★★
Dir. Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna Papadakis · 2025 · Greece · 132 min · Greek with English subtitles
Two childhood friends in a mountain village near Trikala, a cave, a nettle pie and a betrayal. A debut feature by two directors, expanded from a 38-minute short that won the Golden Dionysus at the Drama Short Film Festival in 2023.
It took seven awards at the 66th Thessaloniki festival in November 2025, including best Greek film premiering at the festival, the EKKOME award for best debut direction, a Light award for Hara Kyriazi’s performance and a Mermaid Award special mention for its queer themes — which the synopsis does not signal. It then drew seven nominations at the 2026 Iris Awards.
Athinorama’s Christos Mitsis gave it 3/5 and described “an inventive contrast between the culturally rich past and the kitsch present of Greek provincial life,” set in a tender cine-fairy-tale with living, contemporary characters. That is a warmer notice than he gives most things.
One caution: the festival lists this as a 2023 film running 132 minutes, while Greek sources give the feature as a 2025 Thessaloniki premiere running 121 minutes. The 2023 date probably belongs to the short. Which cut Melbourne is showing is unclear.
Sessions: 17 Oct 6.00pm Westgarth · 17 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 8.00pm Como
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (3/5) · Athinorama, “Is Bearcave worth seeing?”
They Come Out of Margo (Βγαίνουν Μέσα απ’ τη Μάργκο)
3.9/5 ★★★★
Dir. Alexandros Voulgaris (The Boy) · 2025 · Greece · 91 min · Greek with English subtitles
An isolated singer-songwriter confronts her fears at her fortieth birthday party. Voulgaris’s eighth feature, and by some distance the most formally adventurous thing in the programme — an experimental horror-musical with stop-motion sequences, built around Sofia Kokkali’s performance.
It premiered in the Proxima competition at Karlovy Vary in July 2025. Vladan Petkovic at Cineuropa called it “definitely one of the weirdest films to figure in this year’s festival programme” and advised that “it is probably best to let it work like music, rather than as a narrative film: on an instinctual, subconscious and visceral level.” That is a recommendation, not a complaint, and it is also fair warning.
Ali Ercivan at ICS Film gave it three and a half stars and defended the excess directly: “Voulgaris’ approach can be quite maximalist at times, but I believe there’s no such thing as ‘too much’ in a creative process.” In LiFO the verdict was warmer still — “a luminous film about darkness.” Rated for viewers with an appetite for this; anyone wanting a story told straight should discount it by a point.
Sessions: 22 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn
Sources: Vladan Petkovic, Cineuropa · Ali Ercivan, ICS Film · LiFO review, via Cinephilia
Hold Onto Me (Κράτα Με)
3.8/5 ★★★★
Dir. Myrsini Aristidou · 2026 · Greece, Cyprus · 110 min · Greek with English subtitles
An eleven-year-old girl, Iris, reconnects with her estranged father in Cyprus. Aristidou’s feature debut, and the festival’s other genuine international credential: it premiered in World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2026 and won that section’s Audience Award, with Aristidou reported as the first Cypriot director to compete officially at the festival.
The Sundance audience prize tells you the film lands. Olivia Popp’s Cineuropa review tells you how: “hard-earned redemption, not heartbreak, is the name of the game,” with “the chemistry between Petrova and Passalis — a cheeky smile, a wry sigh” making “for a great build-up.” Her reservation is the one worth carrying in: “although executed well in form and style, the narrative and character development are, in the end, ultimately quite conventional.”
A well-made, emotionally direct film that plays safer than its premise suggests. If you want one crowd-pleaser in the programme that is also serious, this is it.
Sessions: 15 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 17 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 18 Oct 1.00pm Pentridge · 18 Oct 6.15pm Kino
Sources: Olivia Popp, Cineuropa
Wishbone
3.8/5 ★★★★
Dir. Penny Panayotopoulou · 2024 · Greece, Cyprus, Germany, France · 123 min · Greek with English subtitles
After his older brother dies suddenly, Kostas — a security guard at a public hospital — takes on his underage niece while trying to save the indebted family home. Adapted from Kallia Papadaki’s short story Forty Days.
Note the director. The festival’s own website credits this film to Stelios Repanis, which is wrong: Wishbone is Penny Panayotopoulou’s, the director of Hard Goodbyes: My Father and September. Repanis directed Zealotis, listed separately below. Five independent sources including Cineuropa’s co-production credits confirm the attribution.
It closed the international competition at the Lecce European Film Festival in 2024, winning Best Cinematography, and took the Audience Award and a best newcomer prize for Giannis Karampampas at Thessaloniki. Vittoria Scarpa’s Cineuropa review reached for the obvious comparison and earned it: “it’s a movie which could just as easily have been shot by Ken Loach.” She found “touches of poetry here and there too (the close-ups on the little girl are stunning), which provide respite and lend hope to this particularly sad and hard-hitting social portrait.”
Only one Melbourne session, in the early afternoon, for one of the better-reviewed films here.
Sessions: 18 Oct 1.30pm Balwyn
Sources: Vittoria Scarpa, Cineuropa
Where Shadows Rest
3.6/5 ★★★½ provisional
Dir. Marianna Economou · 2026 · Greece, Canada · 86 min · Greek with English subtitles
A 75-year-old diver who makes his living raising toxic wrecks from the polluted seabed at Elefsina confronts a buried secret when a doomed vessel resurfaces.
Economou is one of Greece’s leading documentarians: When Tomatoes Met Wagner premiered at the Berlinale in 2019 and became Greece’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature, and The Longest Run travelled widely. This film premiered in competition at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in March 2026, where it won the Youth Jury’s award for best Greek film.
The rating is provisional and rests on Economou’s record plus one jury prize. No review, in any language, had appeared by the time this guide was compiled — six months is not long for a documentary premiere to generate criticism. Treat the number as a reasonable prior rather than a finding.
Sessions: 15 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Electra 7 (Ηλέκτρα 7)
3.5/5 ★★★½ provisional
Dir. Sofia Exarchou, Christina Ioakeimidi, Babis Makridis, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Elina Psykou, Alexandros Voulgaris, Neritan Zinxhiria · 2025 · Greece · 50 min · Greek with English subtitles
Electra and Orestes stand accused of killing their mother in contemporary Athens, and seven directors take turns on the material. Exarchou (Animal, Park), Makridis (Pity, L), Papadimitropoulos (Suntan) and Psykou (Son of Sofia) all have significant international festival records; this is the strongest concentration of directorial talent in the programme.
It premiered as a live outdoor screening at the Athens Epidaurus Festival in the Small Theatre at Ancient Epidaurus, then played Thessaloniki in November 2025 as a special screening rather than in competition.
The structural idea, as the screenwriter Panagiotis Christopoulos described it, is that Electra and Orestes barely speak: the people around them do the talking, and judge the crime. Co-director Neritan Zinxhiria said the interwoven version “gave the fragmented feeling that a crime inherently brings.”
The rating is provisional and it is unusual why. Despite the pedigree, no critic appears to have reviewed it — the coverage is all event journalism. At 50 minutes it is also a short feature. Worth the risk on the names involved.
Sessions: 20 Oct 8.50pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 8.00pm Penny Lane · 25 Oct 4.30pm Balwyn
Sources: Flix.gr on Electra 7 at Thessaloniki
I Was a Stranger (Ήμουν Ένας Ξένος)
3.5/5 ★★★½
Dir. Brandt Andersen · 2024 · Jordan, Palestine, United States · 103 min · English
A Syrian refugee’s journey, premiered at the Berlinale in 2024 as The Stranger’s Case and retitled for its US release. It grew out of Andersen’s short Refugee, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2020.
The only film in the programme with a substantial aggregate score: 76% on Rotten Tomatoes across 21 critics, average 7/10. The consensus is that “pairing sharp storytelling and daring direction from Brandt Andersen, I Was a Stranger overcomes an occasionally heavy-handed script with gripping set pieces and nerve-jangling tension.”
Randy Myers in the San Jose Mercury News singled out “one of the most nerve-wracking boat-raft passages I’ve ever seen on film.” The recurring reservation across notices is didacticism. Its presence in a Greek festival is thematic — the Mediterranean crossing — rather than national.
Sessions: 15 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 17 Oct 8.40pm Balwyn · 18 Oct 7.30pm Como · 23 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes (76%, 21 critics)
The Way Elsewhere (Αλλού ο Δρόμος)
3.5/5 ★★★½
Dir. Eirini Vourloumis · 2026 · Greece · 82 min · Greek with English subtitles
Three ageing Athens taxi drivers, their deferred dreams, and a documentary that keeps sliding into staged sequences — including set pieces shot like folk music videos. A feature debut.
It premiered in international competition at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in March 2026 and went on to CPH:DOX. Screen Daily’s review is the only substantial notice so far, and it is encouraging without overselling: the film “should win over audiences who enjoy the grey area between the real and the imagined.” One driver’s line gives the film its register: “Some want to become shipbuilders, others kings. I just dreamed of owning a taxi.”
The blurring of documentary and performance will not suit everyone, and the review says so. Single session.
Sessions: 15 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Screen Daily review
Patty is Such a Girly Name (Πολύ Κοριτσίστικο Όνομα το Πάττυ)
3.4/5 ★★★½
Dir. Giorgos Georgopoulos · 2025 · Greece · 113 min · Greek with English subtitles
A coming-of-age story set in competitive athletics, and Georgopoulos’s third feature. It played Thessaloniki as a Greek premiere after going through the festival’s Agora works-in-progress in 2024, and has since been picked up by Tallinn, the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival and OUTshine.
Athinorama’s Christos Mitsis gave it 3/5, calling it “a subdued but thoughtfully crafted athletic coming-of-age story” that looks “further beyond the usual ‘agenda’ topics concerning competitive athletics.” Giannis Fragoulis at Filmandtheater was more enthusiastic, describing an approach of poetic realism and identifying the lead as “the centre of gravity of the entire film.”
Two positive Greek notices and no international coverage. A solid, unshowy film with the most sessions of any title in the programme after the opening-night gala.
Sessions: 14 Oct 6.00pm Como · 16 Oct 6.20pm Pentridge · 19 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 23 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 24 Oct 5.50pm Balwyn
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (3/5) · Giannis Fragoulis, Filmandtheater
Receptions (Δεξιώσεις)
3.4/5 ★★★½ provisional
Dir. Filippos Tsitos · 2025 · Greece, Bulgaria, Canada · 104 min · Greek with English subtitles
Tsitos’s first feature in thirteen years, and the return matters: Unfair World won him the Silver Shell for Best Director at San Sebastián in 2011, and Plato’s Academy travelled widely before it. The premise — crashing receptions to eat — is social satire in his established register of deadpan survival comedy.
It premiered at Thessaloniki in late 2025. Tsitos has described his method plainly: “to cope with life, we have to see it from a distance. That is what humour is.”
The rating is provisional, and it rests almost entirely on the director’s record. No verified review had appeared when this guide was compiled. A warning attached to this title in particular: an aggregator site has circulated quotes attributed to Variety, Cineuropa and Greek Reporter praising the film, none of which correspond to any article findable on those outlets. Disregard them.
Sessions: 14 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn · 16 Oct 8.15pm Penny Lane · 18 Oct 5.15pm Como · 19 Oct 6.15pm Pentridge · 19 Oct 7.00pm Kino
Sources: Flix.gr interview with Tsitos
Rooster (Κόκορας)
3.4/5 ★★★½
Dir. Tassos Gerakinis · 2025 · Greece · 101 min · Greek with English subtitles
A working-class Athens council doorman pursues the Greek dream of a better life for his son. It premiered at Thessaloniki on 31 October 2025.
The warmest domestic notice of any new film in the programme. Nikolaos Tsialis wrote that “Rooster leaves a bittersweet aftertaste, exactly like life itself. It is an unexpectedly excellent film that touches on deep social questions without becoming heavy or didactic,” and that Nikos Kasapis “gives a wonderful performance as Argyris, managing to embody the invisible everyman with all his faults, weaknesses and dreams.”
The evidence base is one substantial review plus interview coverage, so the rating is held below where that review alone would put it. A San Francisco Greek Film Festival audience award is asserted in some listings but I could not confirm it on a primary source, and have not counted it.
Sessions: 14 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 15 Oct 6.15pm Como · 18 Oct 4.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge
Sources: Nikolaos Tsialis, Notes from Life
The Megalomaniacs
3.4/5 ★★★½
Dir. Spiros Stathoulopoulos · 2025 · Greece, Cyprus, Colombia · 105 min · Greek with English subtitles
A marine archaeologist and an essayistic satire on sound, faith and vanity. Stathoulopoulos has the most conventionally impressive record of any director here: PVC-1 premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and won the FIPRESCI Prize at Thessaloniki; Metéora competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale.
It premiered in the Rebels with a Cause competition at Tallinn Black Nights in November 2025. Mariana Hristova’s Cineuropa review is the one substantial notice, and it is admiring and exasperated in roughly equal measure: “a rare directorial endeavour whose quirks overshadow the final outcome,” in which “both the protagonists in this film and the acting performances behind them are so captivating that the unfolding action almost loses its importance.” Her summary line is the fairest warning available: “a fairy tale for megalomaniacs by a megalomaniac, which both feeds the ego and starves it whilst also pleasuring the senses.”
One review is thin evidence for a director of this standing, which is why the rating sits where it does rather than higher.
Sessions: 14 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 14 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 15 Oct 8.30pm Como · 18 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge
Sources: Mariana Hristova, Cineuropa
Beachcomber (Μπιτσκόμπερ)
3.3/5 ★★★½
Dir. Aristotelis Maragkos · 2025 · Greece · 92 min · Greek with English subtitles
A man builds a boat from scrap metal to chase the shadow of his sailor father, and the myth he has built around himself collapses with it. Inspired by the letters of the poet Nikos Kavvadias, with Christos Passalis in the lead.
Maragkos comes to it with real standing — his found-footage animation The Timekeepers of Eternity was widely admired — and the film premiered in international competition at Thessaloniki in November 2025, where it is reported to have taken the Silver Alexander and an artistic achievement award for Giorgos Karvelas’s cinematography. I could not confirm the Silver Alexander on the festival’s own site, though the cinematography prize is corroborated independently.
Athinorama’s review is the corrective. Christos Mitsis gave it 2.5/5, admiring the atmosphere and the craft while finding the psychological portrait descriptive rather than developed. Rated as a handsome film whose reach exceeds its grasp, which the awards alone would not tell you.
Sessions: 14 Oct 9.00pm Pentridge · 24 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2.5/5)
Life in a Beat (Μικρές Ανάσες)
3.3/5 ★★★½ provisional
Dir. Amerissa Basta · 2025 · Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, France · 92 min · Greek with English subtitles
Basta’s first fiction feature, released in Greece in June 2026, and taken seriously by the domestic industry: five Iris Award nominations from the Greek Film Academy, for best fiction feature, new director, screenplay, supporting actress (Elina Tsiormpatzi) and supporting actor (Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos).
Five nominations spread across writing, direction and both acting categories is a meaningful signal for a debut — it means several branches of the academy rated it independently.
The rating is provisional. Reviews exist at Bookpress and Flix, but neither could be retrieved for this guide, so the number rests on the nominations rather than on anything a critic actually wrote.
Sessions: 18 Oct 6.30pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane
Sources: no published review located.
Meat (Κρέας)
3.3/5 ★★★½
Dir. Dimitris Nakos · 2024 · Greece · 104 min · Greek with English subtitles
A killing over a land dispute in rural Greece, and the cover-up that follows. It premiered at Thessaloniki in 2024, where Greek reports credit it with three awards, and took a prize at the Montpellier Mediterranean festival; I could not pin down the specific categories in either case. It finished second in the Panhellenic critics’ film-of-the-year vote for 2025, behind Broken Vein.
That runner-up placing is the strongest evidence for it. The individual reviews are cooler. Athinorama’s Christos Mitsis gave it 2.5/5, crediting “narrative ideas, though not all entirely successful,” and objecting to an awkwardly parallel-edited finale. Andy Dimopoulou at Cinemagazine praised the three lead performances but found that “the shaky-camera effect throughout the film may be more intense than necessary.”
Well-made social realism that the Greek critical establishment rates more highly in aggregate than any single reviewer did.
Sessions: 17 Oct 4.15pm Balwyn · 22 Oct 8.30pm Como · 22 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2.5/5) · Andy Dimopoulou, Cinemagazine
Acropolis Cats and Other Wondrous Animals
3.2/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Mary Zournazi · 2026 · Australia · 76 min · English, Greek
The stray cats of Athens and the people who care for them, used to think about cruelty, compassion and freedom. Zournazi is a Greek-Australian filmmaker and writer, and this completes an unofficial trilogy with Dogs of Democracy and My Rembetika Blues.
It premiered at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in July 2026, so the Melbourne screening is close to its second public outing. Zournazi has described the thread running through the three films as “hope in action; in other words, how to conceive our relationships in the world that may enable more care, consideration and respect.”
Provisional. Everything published about it so far is interview and preview coverage in the Greek-Australian and festival press rather than criticism, and none of it should be mistaken for endorsement. The local interest is real and independent of the rating.
Sessions: 17 Oct 2.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Neos Kosmos interview with Mary Zournazi
Little Man-Eater (Μικρός Ανθρωποφάγος)
3.2/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Yannis Fagras · 2025 · Greece · 101 min · Greek with English subtitles
Fagras has the kind of record that makes a blank review page frustrating rather than discouraging. His debut, Still Looking for Morphine, won the Greek Film Critics Award at Thessaloniki and was named one of Sight & Sound’s 75 hidden gems; his second feature, Forget Me Not, played Thessaloniki’s official competition.
This one screened in the Greek Film Festival: First Run strand at Thessaloniki in November 2025 and then at the Panorama of European Cinema, without an award in either.
Provisional, on the director’s record alone. Searches in both languages turned up festival catalogue copy and ticketing pages and nothing else — no review has been published that I could find.
Sessions: 23 Oct 8.15pm Como · 24 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge
Sources: no published review located.
Madonnas
3.1/5 ★★★
Dir. Aris Ionas and Lakis Ionas · 2025 · Greece · 76 min · Greek with English subtitles
A subversive comedy about sexuality and female solidarity, from the brothers who work collectively as The Callas. Underground and experimental by disposition, which is why the coverage is niche rather than absent.
It premiered at Thessaloniki in November 2025. Poly Lykourgou’s review at Flix is mixed and specific, praising a voice “so fresh and to the point,” with a language “so delightfully free,” while judging the back half “a little weaker, less well-founded and hastily completed.”
A warning for anyone else researching this film: an aggregator site circulates quotes attributed to The Guardian, Cineuropa and Greek Reporter, including a line about John Waters directing Thelma & Louise in Athens. None could be verified against those publications, and Cineuropa’s database entry under this title is for an unrelated 2007 German film. Do not repeat them.
Sessions: 19 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 23 Oct 6.15pm Como
Sources: Poly Lykourgou, Flix
Elena’s Shift
3.0/5 ★★★
Dir. Stefanos Tsivopoulos · 2024 · Greece · 100 min · Greek, Romanian with English subtitles
A Romanian migrant cleaning the Athens metro in 2013, at the depth of the crisis. Tsivopoulos is a visual artist who represented Greece at the Venice Art Biennale in 2013 with History Zero; this is his first narrative feature, with Maria Dragus, Penelope Tsilika and Rodica Lazar.
It premiered in the First Feature competition at Tallinn Black Nights in November 2025. Marko Stojiljković at Cineuropa gave the only substantial review, and it is a careful mixed one. On the strengths: “the film’s greatest assets are its lead actresses, and Tsivopoulos knows it, so he usually frames them in close-up and in a series of reverse shots.” On the weakness: “Elena’s troubles, desires and general predicament simply seem too vague and generic, so any real emotional impact in the third act falls flat.”
His verdict — “the end result is satisfactory, but nothing more than that” — is where the rating comes from.
Sessions: 18 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 19 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 22 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Marko Stojiljković, Cineuropa
Endless Land (Άπειρη Γη)
3.0/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Vassilis Mazomenos · 2025 · Greece · 80 min · Greek with English subtitles
A multi-generational family story set in rural Epirus. It premiered at Thessaloniki in the Greek Film Festival: First Run strand in November 2025.
The award record is the only hard evidence, and it points in one direction: best debut actor at Thessaloniki, best cinematography at the Maverick Movie Awards with nominations for editing and music, and the critics’ award plus best cinematography at Fantasporto in 2026. Two separate cinematography prizes at two separate festivals suggest where the film’s strength lies.
Provisional. No review text could be retrieved, in Greek or English, so this is inference from award categories rather than from anything a critic wrote.
Sessions: 20 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Director’s awards page
Female (Θηλυκό)
3.0/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Konstantinos Menelaou · 2025 · Greece · 81 min · Greek with English subtitles
A hybrid of documentary, fiction and essay about Aliki Vougiouklaki, using three actresses to play different facets of her — the star, the woman, and what came after the stardom. For a Greek or Greek-Australian audience this is the most loaded subject in the programme.
Menelaou has said he looks at Vougiouklaki “through a distinctly queer lens,” arguing that “the star system itself has always maintained a profound connection with queer culture.” The film’s project, on the one substantial review available, is to take the myth apart rather than restate it.
That review, by Kosmas Kopsaris, is strongly positive — “extremely interesting, the screenplay and the direction,” with cinematography that is “truly exquisite” — and makes the point that “Menelaou’s film does not build a different myth about Aliki.” It is one academic voice, syndicated across two sites, not a consensus. Provisional, and likely to be the most argued-about screening of the festival.
Sessions: 16 Oct 6.30pm Westgarth · 17 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 19 Oct 9.00pm Como · 21 Oct 6.15pm Kino
Sources: Kosmas Kopsaris review · Menelaou interview, Flix
Mahi (Μάχη)
3.0/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Elias Giannakakis · 2025 · Greece · 120 min · Greek with English subtitles
A 75-year-old trans woman, once a military officer, returns to Greece after fifty years abroad to find the daughter she left. The title is a woman’s name and also the Greek word for battle.
Betty Vakalidou, herself a landmark figure in Greek trans life, plays the lead, alongside Elena Topalidou and Manolis Mavromatakis. Giannakakis is an enormously prolific documentarian; this is a comparatively rare fiction outing.
It premiered at Thessaloniki in November 2025. No review in either language could be found, so the rating is provisional and reflects the subject, the casting and the director’s experience rather than any critical judgement. Material this charged — the junta years, fifty years of estrangement — could go either way in the execution.
Sessions: 14 Oct 6.20pm Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.15pm Como · 18 Oct 6.00pm Westgarth
Sources: no published review located.
Maricel
3.0/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Elias Demetriou · 2025 · Greece, Cyprus · 120 min · Greek with English subtitles
A Filipina domestic worker takes on the care of an elderly Cypriot couple, and a quiet struggle over power follows. Demetriou is a Greek-Cypriot director whose earlier Fish n’ Chips drew trade attention.
It premiered at Thessaloniki in the Greek Film Festival: First Run strand in November 2025. The only review I could find is enthusiastic and from a small outlet: “a beautifully crafted film, shining a light on a reality faced by millions of Filipino families,” and “cultural immersion, done beautifully.”
That is a five-star notice from a personal blog, which is one data point, not a verdict. The subject — migrant domestic labour in Cyprus, with a Filipina lead in Zar Donato — is unusual and worth the attention. Provisional.
Sessions: 20 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 21 Oct 7.45pm Como
Sources: A Young(ish) Perspective review
Novak (Ο Δρ. Νόβακ)
3.0/5 ★★★
Dir. Harry Lagoussis · 2025 · Greece · 110 min · Greek with English subtitles
A discredited neuroscientist turned guru, played by Zlatko Burić. It premiered at Edinburgh in 2025 in competition for the Sean Connery Prize, then played Thessaloniki in the Meet the Neighbours+ competition.
Two trade reviews, both saying the same thing: the performance carries a film that does not move. Screen Daily found that “the blurred frontier between maniac and visionary is explored to intriguing but uneven effect” and that “given the script’s high-stakes issues, the film’s plodding style fails to engage the emotions.” Vassilis Kroustallis at High On Films called it “a revealing if sometimes mismanaged sci-fi minded portrait of radical communities,” adding that “the dialogues often stifle and become inappropriate to the high science its practitioners seem to practice.”
Convergent reviews are worth more than their number. Go for Burić.
Sessions: 18 Oct 2.45pm Como
Sources: Screen Daily review · Vassilis Kroustallis, High On Films
Volume 7 (Τόμος 7)
3.0/5 ★★★
Dir. Panos Pappas and Despina Charalampous · 2025 · Greece, Cyprus, Serbia · 105 min · Greek
Science fiction, which Greek cinema attempts rarely and rarely at this scale. It premiered at Thessaloniki in November 2025 and opened in Greece in March 2026.
Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave it 2.5/5 and put both halves of the case in one sentence: “bold in scope for Greek cinema and an aesthetically sophisticated science-fiction allegory,” but one where “interpretive uncertainty and the poverty of the production damage the narrative’s credibility.” A US festival review was more taken with it, praising a film that “refuses to tie anything neatly together” and “flickers like memory.”
Ambition outrunning budget is a specific and forgivable failing. Whether it is forgivable to you depends on your tolerance for it.
Sessions: 17 Oct 6.15pm Como · 23 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2.5/5) · Utah Film Festival review
Winter Sea (Η Θάλασσα το Χειμώνα)
3.0/5 ★★★
Dir. Nikos Kornilios · 2025 · Greece · 108 min · Greek
Three solitary people in a coastal mining town — a young geologist, the area’s only woman fisher, and a night watchman at the power station descended from miners — try to work out what love is.
It premiered at Thessaloniki in 2025 and had a Greek Film Archive release in April 2026. Two Greek reviews, both middling. Fotini Nikolitsa at Athinorama gave it 2.5/5, finding it “tautly scripted and directorially spare,” capturing its characters’ preoccupations with memory and the meaning of life. Poly Lykourgou at Flix scored it 6/10 and described “a charming, atmospheric, melancholic journey through forgotten places of our personal histories,” with “masterful shots, wet dark evocative atmosphere, slow but meaningful cinematic rhythm,” while finding the screenplay somewhat trapped on its way to catharsis.
Consistent, unexcited praise for the atmosphere and consistent reservations about the script. Rated accordingly.
Sessions: 19 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn
Sources: Fotini Nikolitsa, Athinorama (2.5/5) · Poly Lykourgou, Flix (6/10)
Greece 3.0 (Ελλάδα 3.0)
2.9/5 ★★★
Dir. Michalis Gigintis, Dimitris Papathanasis, Ioanna Kryona · 2026 · Greece · 88 min · Greek
Three satirical shorts stitched into a feature, released in Greece in June 2026 without any festival life.
Both Greek reviews agree the segments are unequal, and both single out the actor Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave 2.5/5, finding the pieces “inventive, but necessarily uneven with each other,” and the whole “welcomingly light and spicily entertaining.” Ilias Dimopoulos at Cinemagazine was warmer: “three short comedies, joined into a single portmanteau form that satirically mirrors our country,” and “it’s pitch black, it’s funny, it holds nothing sacred.”
Light satire, honestly labelled. Not the reason to buy a festival pass, and a good evening if you are already there.
Sessions: 15 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2.5/5) · Ilias Dimopoulos, Cinemagazine
Geloioi Erotes (Γελοίοι Έρωτες)
2.8/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Dimitris Katsimiris · 2025 · Greece · 73 min · Greek with English subtitles
Six interlinked tragicomic love stories, premiered at Thessaloniki in November 2025. Katsimiris’s second feature; his first, With Dignity, won an audience award at the same festival.
He self-financed it after failing to get EKKOMED or ERT funding, and places himself explicitly in a low-budget independent tradition, invoking Cassavetes. In interview he frames the film around the thinness of contemporary romantic attachment, using ghosting as his example.
Provisional, and thinly supported: no review in either language could be found, only the premiere listing and a substantial director interview. The rating reflects a modest second feature by a director with one audience award, which is all the evidence permits.
Sessions: 15 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 18 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 22 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
Sources: Jacobin Greece interview with Katsimiris
Tender
2.8/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Aris Bafaloukas · 2025 · France, Greece · 75 min · Greek with English subtitles
Premiered in the Crossing Borders section at Thessaloniki on 1 November 2025. Bafaloukas’s previous feature, Apnea, had some festival circulation.
Nothing beyond the festival catalogue could be found — no review, no award, no trade notice, in either language. That is unusual for a film ten months past its premiere and is itself weak evidence.
Provisional and set at the level of an unheralded second feature. It could easily be better than this; there is simply nothing to go on.
Sessions: 16 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane · 16 Oct 8.40pm Balwyn · 20 Oct 6.15pm Como
Sources: no published review located.
Zealotis (Ζηλωτής)
2.8/5 ★★★ provisional
Dir. Stelios Repanis · 2025 · Greece · 82 min · Greek with English subtitles
Iosif and Vicky spend three days clearing his family’s long-abandoned house at his father’s request. In the overgrown yard Iosif finds Antonis, a drifter, and a wary, tense friendship develops while Vicky learns what the family has kept quiet.
This synopsis also appeared on the festival’s listing for Wishbone, which is an error on their site; it belongs here. Repanis’s feature debut, which he also produced, premiered in the Film Forward competition at Thessaloniki in November 2025.
Provisional. A debut feature ten months past a single festival premiere, with no review located in Greek or English — genuinely unreviewed rather than badly reviewed, which is a different thing and worth saying plainly.
Sessions: 24 Oct 6.00pm Como
Sources: no published review located.
Don’t Laugh, They’ll See You (Μη Γελάτε, Θα Σας Δει ο Κόσμος)
2.7/5 ★★½
Dir. Nicholas Dimitropoulos · 2026 · Greece · 105 min · Greek with English subtitles
Maria, who lives on an island, discovers she is pregnant at forty while visiting her religious sister in Athens for their mother’s memorial.
The two available notices disagree flatly, which is worth knowing before you book. Thodoris Dimitropoulos at News247 found “a personal, tender and unexpectedly funny film.” Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave it 2/5 under a headline that translates as “commonplace treatment of the most commonplace theme,” and found the plot predictable.
The rating splits the difference and leans towards the reviewer with a track record of consistency. A film whose worth will depend heavily on how much the central performance persuades you.
Sessions: 18 Oct 3.30pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth
Sources: Thodoris Dimitropoulos, News247 · Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2/5)
The Philosopher (I Have Something to Say) (Έχω κάτι να πω)
2.7/5 ★★½
Dir. Stratos Tzitzis · 2024 · Greece, Germany · 96 min · Greek with English subtitles
A self-referential satire on the Greek film industry, premiered at Thessaloniki in 2024.
Both Greek reviews land in the same place: the comedy works, the philosophy does not. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave 2.5/5 and put it neatly — “the self-reference is excessive, but it has taste.” Charis Anagnostakis, writing for the Athens News Agency, was blunter about the other half: “its philosophical disposition resembles chattering more than substance.” Antinoos Albanis’s lead performance was credited by both.
An in-joke about filmmaking, made with some charm, padded with more ideas than it can carry.
Sessions: 17 Oct 6.15pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.15pm Como · 25 Oct 4.15pm Penny Lane
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2.5/5) · Charis Anagnostakis, via Cityportal
I Will Love You in November (Θα σ’ Αγαπώ τον Νοέμβρη)
2.6/5 ★★½
Dir. Sotiris Stamatis · 2025 · Greece · 79 min · Greek with English subtitles
Several couples over one night in Thessaloniki. It played Thessaloniki in 2025 and the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival in 2026, without awards.
One review, and a mixed one. Poly Lykourgou at Flix gave it 5/10 and reached for the obvious comparison: “a Linklater-ish dramedy with segmented couples’ stories. The result is worked-through, but uneven.” The night-time cinematography of the city drew praise; the three parallel strands did not hold up equally.
A small film with a single lukewarm notice and no international attention. Rated as what it appears to be.
Sessions: 17 Oct 4.15pm Como
Sources: Poly Lykourgou, Flix (5/10)
The Anything (Το Οτιδήποτε)
2.6/5 ★★½
Dir. Yorgos Athanasiou · 2025 · Greece · 92 min · Greek with English subtitles
An improvised, talk-driven film about meaning and creativity — mumblecore, essentially, transposed to Athens. Released in Greece without a festival launch.
The two Greek reviews are split by about a point. Manolis Kranakis at Flix scored it 5/10, describing “a mumblecore hybrid about the meaning of life (or not),” and identifying the problem exactly: “there is no centre of gravity, and the conversations often do not finish.” Christos Mitsis at Athinorama was harsher at 2/5, while conceding something real: the film is “autistic as a cine-construction, [but] it has an almost addictive improvisational quality.”
Both critics found the same virtue and the same defect and weighted them differently. If loose, unresolved conversation appeals, add half a point.
Sessions: 15 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge
Sources: Manolis Kranakis, Flix (5/10) · Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2/5)
The Birthday Party
2.6/5 ★★½
Dir. Miguel Ángel Jiménez · 2025 · Greece, Spain, Netherlands, UK · 103 min · English
Adapted from Panos Karnezis’s novel, with Willem Dafoe, Vic Carmen Sonne, Joe Cole and Emma Suárez, premiered in the Piazza Grande at Locarno in August 2025. The most star-laden film in the programme and, on the numbers, one of the weakest.
It sits at 30% on Rotten Tomatoes across thirty critics. The split is unusually clean. Amber Wilkinson at Screen Daily found a “stylish tale of hedonism and heartbreak”; a Locarno review described “a slick and taut affair, glinting with hints of black comedy” over “the solid bedrock of ancient tragedy”; Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian gave three stars. Against that, Robert Daniels at RogerEbert.com: “this putrid, unfocused narrative is so pointless, it manages to dampen even Dafoe’s presence.” Variety filed it under murky family melodrama.
Almost every notice, favourable or not, credits Dafoe. The rating follows the aggregate rather than the best review, which is what an aggregate is for. Star power and a Locarno slot are not evidence of quality, and here they point in opposite directions.
Sessions: 20 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 25 Oct 2.15pm Balwyn
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes (30%, 30 critics) · Amber Wilkinson, Screen Daily · Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
Cavo Paradiso
2.5/5 ★★½ provisional
Dir. Andonis Theocharis Kioukas · 2026 · Greece · 59 min · Greek, English and Italian with English subtitles
Thirty years of the Mykonos nightclub, premiered at the open-air Cine Manto in Mykonos town in August 2025 to mark the anniversary.
No critic has written about it. Everything findable is announcement and promotional copy — Greek City Times, GTP, DJ Mag — describing the club rather than assessing the film.
Provisional, and set at the level of a competent commissioned anniversary documentary, which is what the circumstances suggest. If the club is the draw, the rating is beside the point.
Sessions: 21 Oct 6.15pm Como
Sources: no published review located.
Maya & Samar (Η Σαμάρ και η Μάγια)
2.5/5 ★★½
Dir. Anita Doron · 2025 · Canada, Greece, South Africa · 95 min · English
Doron co-wrote The Breadwinner, which was nominated for the animated feature Oscar, and directed The Lesser Blessed. This premiered at Thessaloniki on 4 November 2025.
Most of the coverage concerns an NC-17 rating from the MPAA for sexual content and nudity, which Doron publicly disputed. That is a distribution story, not a critical one, and should not be mistaken for either praise or condemnation.
The one actual review, by Matthew Simpson at Exclaim!, is regretful rather than hostile: “a film that just misses the mark. One made with care and sincerity ... fails to land.” His specific objection is to the vantage point — “the film really falters ... in its perspective. Not that it’s not empathetic, but it’s also decidedly Western.” One review, so the rating is soft, but it is the only critical assessment available.
Sessions: 21 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth
Sources: Matthew Simpson, Exclaim!
Regan
2.5/5 ★★½
Dir. Panos Katsimperis · 2025 · Greece · 84 min · Greek with English subtitles
A debut feature that yokes a realist drama to psychological body horror — the birth of a deformed infant as an allegory of artistic anxiety, with heavy debts to Eraserhead and The Exorcist. It premiered in the FilmForward competition at Thessaloniki.
The two Greek reviews divide sharply. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave 1.5/5, arguing that the film’s two halves never connect: their communication, he wrote, is “full of interference and their connection unsuccessful.” Varvara Kontoni at Cinemagazine was considerably more sympathetic, reading it as a coherent dramatic comedy about making art and being rejected, praising Irini Lafazani’s performance and the practical effects.
Ambitious and unresolved, on the evidence. Worth a look for the practical-effects craft if the genre appeals; not otherwise.
Sessions: 18 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (1.5/5)
A Spartan Dream
2.4/5 ★★½
Dir. Michael A. Nickles and M. Achilles · 2025 · United States · 97 min · English
A Greek-American history enthusiast decides he must reignite a classical war to win a woman in his family’s ancestral village. A US independent production with no festival record.
The two reviews are irreconcilable. Michael Talbot-Haynes at Film Threat rated it 8.5/10 and put it “on the same level of the best fish out of water classics.” Roger Moore at Movie Nation found it “never quite funny but aspiring to ‘cute’” and concluded that “’A Spartan Dream’ loses too much in translation.”
Two small outlets, no trade coverage, and — notably for a film about Greek heritage — no Greek criticism at all, which suggests it never had a Greek release. The rating averages a wide disagreement and should be treated as unreliable in both directions.
Sessions: 17 Oct 4.00pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 3.45pm Como
Sources: Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat · Roger Moore, Movie Nation
Tell Me (Πες μου)
2.4/5 ★★½
Dir. Nikos Megrelis · 2026 · Greece, Germany · 71 min · Greek with English subtitles
The photographer Renée Revah retraces her family’s deportation route from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz-Birkenau, staged partly as an imagined conversation with her grandfather. It had a Greek run at the Danaos in Athens from April 2026.
One review, and a cool one. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave it 2/5 while crediting what the film is trying to do: “a historical chronicle which rests on lived experience, defending the value of memory.” The subject is unimpeachable; on his reading the film does not rise to it.
A caveat that applies across this guide but bites hardest here. Mitsis writes most of Athinorama’s reviews and grades hard; on a single notice from a single demanding critic, the rating carries less weight than the ratings above it. The subject alone may justify the ticket.
Sessions: 19 Oct 6.00pm Como
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2/5)
The Great Massacre of Alimos (Η Μεγάλη Σφαγή των Β’ ΚΑΠΗ Αλίμου)
2.4/5 ★★½
Dir. Athanasios (Tommy) Sklavos · 2025 · Greece · 108 min · Greek with English subtitles
An LGBTQI+ film crew makes a documentary about an explosion that killed seventy people at an elderly citizens’ centre, structured as a whodunit. It screened at Thessaloniki in the A Second Viewing strand.
The one review retrieved in full is a pan. Manolis Kranakis at Flix gave it 3/10 — “a completely amateurish film that, despite its nerve and its roughly queer courage, does not manage to transcend its ‘local’ character” — and judged that “the overall ‘experience’ remains deficient, that the joking prevails over cinematic satire.”
The rating is held above what that alone implies, because several other Greek outlets ran clearly enthusiastic pieces — Popaganda called it surreal, bizarre and thoroughly enjoyable — that could not be retrieved in full. The evidence is genuinely mixed, and the six sessions suggest the festival expects it to find an audience.
Sessions: 14 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 15 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 16 Oct 9.15pm Pentridge · 17 Oct 8.45pm Como · 19 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 23 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn
Sources: Manolis Kranakis, Flix (3/10)
The River (Το Ποτάμι)
2.4/5 ★★½
Dir. Haris Raftogiannis · 2024 · Greece, Italy, Kosovo · 93 min · Greek with English subtitles
A romantic comedy carrying social allegory, premiered at Thessaloniki in November 2024, with Makis Papadimitriou.
Reviewers in both languages reach the same conclusion. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave 2/5 and found the film “unable to balance its disparate elements,” though he conceded that “when the couple in love is left alone, the film finds rhythm and feeling.” A Canadian festival report was harsher: “what could have been a romcom punctuated by just the right dose of intellectualization collapses into a boring nonsensical finish,” saved from disaster only by Papadimitriou.
The two-hander works and the film around it does not. Rated on that consistent finding.
Sessions: 22 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 3.30pm Balwyn
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (2/5) · Robert K Stephen, A Little Birdie Told Me
Best Friends Forever (Φίλοι Για Πάντα)
2.3/5 ★★½
Dir. Konstantinos Mousoulis · 2026 · Greece · 100 min · Greek
Interwoven stories converging on a big Greek family wedding. Mousoulis’s first feature after eighteen shorts and years working in the UK and US, and the festival’s opening-night gala across six venues simultaneously.
It won the audience award for a feature at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival in 2026, which tells you it works on a diaspora audience in a full room. Greek critics at home were considerably cooler. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama gave it 1.5/5, describing “a comedy of misunderstandings of televisual conception, episodic and uneven, with clumsy dramaturgy.” Ilias Frangoulis at FreeCinema was gentler and still equivocal: “some things work, some others sabotage the whole effort ... At least, in some scenes I laughed. This doesn’t happen easily.”
The gap between the two receptions is the point. As an opening-night film in a full house it will probably do exactly what is asked of it. The rating reflects the film, not the evening.
Sessions: Opening night, 13 Oct, 6.30–7.00pm across Balwyn, Como, Westgarth, Penny Lane, Astor and Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.30pm Kino · 21 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn · 24 Oct 8.00pm Como
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (1.5/5) · Ilias Frangoulis, FreeCinema
Saint Paisios (Άγιος Παΐσιος)
2.1/5 ★★ provisional
Dir. Stamos Tsamis · 2026 · Greece · 125 min · Greek with English subtitles
The life of Arsenios Eznepidis, the Cappadocian refugee who became Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, from childhood to monastic life. A commercial devotional release rather than a festival film.
It has no reviews, and the reason is documented. Flix, one of the main Greek review outlets, published a note explaining that it could not review the film because “the distributor did not hold a press screening,” and filed it as the Paisios television series in cinematic form. A distributor declining to show a film to critics is itself information.
Six sessions, the equal-highest in the programme, so the festival knows its audience. For anyone approaching it as biography rather than devotion, LiFO’s podcast on how Paisios’s posthumous legend accumulated undocumented miracle stories — and on his own reported dislike of publicity — is useful preparation. Provisional, and the number is close to meaningless: this is a film for people who already want to see it.
Sessions: 14 Oct 8.30pm Como · 15 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn · 18 Oct 8.15pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 25 Oct 3.30pm Como
Sources: Flix.gr note on the absent press screening · LiFO podcast on the Paisios legend
Kapodistrias (Καποδίστριας)
2.0/5 ★★
Dir. Yannis Smaragdis · 2025 · Greece · 132 min · Greek with English subtitles
Smaragdis has built a career on large historical biopics — El Greco, Cavafy, God Loves Caviar — that do well domestically and are received coldly by critics. This, on Greece’s first head of state, followed the pattern exactly: a substantial box-office success on release in late December 2025, preceded by a row over state funding and accusations of excessive patriotism.
Three Greek reviews reach for the same charge independently. Christos Mitsis at Athinorama (1.5/5): “Smaragdis, Wikipedia and one more hagiographic portrait of an eminent figure of Greek history, coloured with intense religiosity and overflowing patriotism.” Giannis Vasileios at LiFO: “Kapodistrias is a film that probably cannot withstand criticism.” Lida Galanou at Flix: “a film that neither in script nor in look surpasses a school national-day pageant.”
Three critics converging on hagiography is about as clear as critical evidence gets. It has not travelled outside Greece. The audience that wants it will not be dissuaded by the rating, and should not be.
Sessions: 19 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
Sources: Christos Mitsis, Athinorama (1.5/5) · Giannis Vasileios, LiFO · Lida Galanou, Flix
Outside the ratings
14th Greek Student Short Film Festival (14ο Ελληνικό Μαθητικό Φεστιβάλ Ταινιών Μικρού Μήκους)
Not rated
Various directors · 2026 · Australia · 120 min · Greek with English subtitles
Not rated, because it is not that kind of thing. This is the fourteenth year of a Greek Community of Melbourne initiative in which school students learning Greek make short films, and the programme is the result.
Rating it against Karlovy Vary premieres would be a category error. Go if you have a stake in it, or an interest in what Greek-language education in Melbourne is producing.
Sessions: 25 Oct 12.15pm Como
Sources: Neos Kosmos on the 2026 entries
The programme A to Z
Rating, then Melbourne sessions.
14th Greek Student Short Film Festival not rated
25 Oct 12.15pm Como
A Spartan Dream 2.4/5
17 Oct 4.00pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 3.45pm Como
Acropolis Cats and Other Wondrous Animals 3.2/5 (provisional)
17 Oct 2.15pm Balwyn
The Anything 2.6/5
15 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge
Beachcomber 3.3/5
14 Oct 9.00pm Pentridge · 24 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane
Bearcave 4.0/5
17 Oct 6.00pm Westgarth · 17 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 8.00pm Como
Best Friends Forever 2.3/5
Opening night, 13 Oct, 6.30–7.00pm across Balwyn, Como, Westgarth, Penny Lane, Astor and Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.30pm Kino · 21 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn · 24 Oct 8.00pm Como
The Birthday Party 2.6/5
20 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 25 Oct 2.15pm Balwyn
Broken Vein 4.5/5
17 Oct 6.00pm Kino · 20 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 23 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 24 Oct 8.20pm Pentridge
Cavo Paradiso 2.5/5 (provisional)
21 Oct 6.15pm Como
Don’t Laugh, They’ll See You 2.7/5
18 Oct 3.30pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth
Electra 7 3.5/5 (provisional)
20 Oct 8.50pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 8.00pm Penny Lane · 25 Oct 4.30pm Balwyn
Elena’s Shift 3.0/5
18 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 19 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 22 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Endless Land 3.0/5 (provisional)
20 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Eva 4.4/5
19 Oct 8.00pm Como
Female 3.0/5 (provisional)
16 Oct 6.30pm Westgarth · 17 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 19 Oct 9.00pm Como · 21 Oct 6.15pm Kino
Geloioi Erotes 2.8/5 (provisional)
15 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 18 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 22 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
The Great Massacre of Alimos 2.4/5
14 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 15 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 16 Oct 9.15pm Pentridge · 17 Oct 8.45pm Como · 19 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 23 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn
Greece 3.0 2.9/5
15 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge
Hen 4.1/5
17 Oct 6.30pm Balwyn
Hold Onto Me 3.8/5
15 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 17 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 18 Oct 1.00pm Pentridge · 18 Oct 6.15pm Kino
I Was a Stranger 3.5/5
15 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 17 Oct 8.40pm Balwyn · 18 Oct 7.30pm Como · 23 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge
I Will Love You in November 2.6/5
17 Oct 4.15pm Como
Kapodistrias 2.0/5
19 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
Life in a Beat 3.3/5 (provisional)
18 Oct 6.30pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane
Little Man-Eater 3.2/5 (provisional)
23 Oct 8.15pm Como · 24 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge
Madonnas 3.1/5
19 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge · 20 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 23 Oct 6.15pm Como
Mahi 3.0/5 (provisional)
14 Oct 6.20pm Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.15pm Como · 18 Oct 6.00pm Westgarth
Maricel 3.0/5 (provisional)
20 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 21 Oct 7.45pm Como
Maya & Samar 2.5/5
21 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth
Meat 3.3/5
17 Oct 4.15pm Balwyn · 22 Oct 8.30pm Como · 22 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane
The Megalomaniacs 3.4/5
14 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 14 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn · 15 Oct 8.30pm Como · 18 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge
Novak 3.0/5
18 Oct 2.45pm Como
Patty is Such a Girly Name 3.4/5
14 Oct 6.00pm Como · 16 Oct 6.20pm Pentridge · 19 Oct 6.00pm Penny Lane · 23 Oct 6.15pm Westgarth · 24 Oct 5.50pm Balwyn
The Philosopher (I Have Something to Say) 2.7/5
17 Oct 6.15pm Pentridge · 22 Oct 6.15pm Como · 25 Oct 4.15pm Penny Lane
Receptions 3.4/5 (provisional)
14 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn · 16 Oct 8.15pm Penny Lane · 18 Oct 5.15pm Como · 19 Oct 6.15pm Pentridge · 19 Oct 7.00pm Kino
Regan 2.5/5
18 Oct 8.30pm Pentridge
The River 2.4/5
22 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge · 23 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 3.30pm Balwyn
Rooster 3.4/5
14 Oct 8.30pm Penny Lane · 15 Oct 6.15pm Como · 18 Oct 4.15pm Balwyn · 21 Oct 6.30pm Pentridge
Saint Paisios 2.1/5 (provisional)
14 Oct 8.30pm Como · 15 Oct 6.00pm Pentridge · 16 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn · 18 Oct 8.15pm Penny Lane · 24 Oct 8.15pm Balwyn · 25 Oct 3.30pm Como
Tell Me 2.4/5
19 Oct 6.00pm Como
Tender 2.8/5 (provisional)
16 Oct 6.15pm Penny Lane · 16 Oct 8.40pm Balwyn · 20 Oct 6.15pm Como
They Come Out of Margo 3.9/5
22 Oct 8.30pm Balwyn
Volume 7 3.0/5
17 Oct 6.15pm Como · 23 Oct 8.45pm Pentridge
The Way Elsewhere 3.5/5
15 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Where Shadows Rest 3.6/5 (provisional)
15 Oct 6.15pm Balwyn
Winter Sea 3.0/5
19 Oct 6.00pm Balwyn
Wishbone 3.8/5
18 Oct 1.30pm Balwyn
Zealotis 2.8/5 (provisional)
24 Oct 6.00pm Como