EUROMEDITERRANEAN / Greece and Romania reward their films

On March 28^th Greek and Romanian cinema professionals honoured their colleagues by giving awards respectively to “Wednesday 04:45” and “Aferim!”.

In Athens, the Hellenic Film Academy voted overwhelmingly for Alexis Alexiou’s thriller “Wednesday 04:45”. This co-production, made with German and Israeli finance, won no fewer than 9 Iris Awards (13 nominations), including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. The film is a neo-noir thriller about a nightclub owner on the brink of bankruptcy who has 32 hours to save his family and his business.

The award for Best Foreign Film went to a Greek director, Yorgos Lanthimos, for “The Lobster”, co-produced with the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands.

In Romania, one film also swept the board at the 10th Gopo Awards ceremony: Radu Jude’s “Aferim!” (Bravo!) took a whopping 13 awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. Set in a feudal 1835 with western overtones, this black and white feature film is about the way even in the 19^th century the Roma were treated as slaves.

It also won the Audience Award, traditionally given to the Romanian film with the highest cinema takings over the past year (“Aferim!” has sold 77,000 tickets).

Radu Jude received 6 Gopo Awards in 2013 for “Papa Vient Dimanche”, including Best Film.

Sources: Cineuropa, Screen Daily, Romania Insider