Greek Oscar Chaos Deepens as Government, Industry Look for Way Forward After ‘Unacceptable and Distressing’ Selection Fiasco
variety.comChristopher Vourlias One week after Greece’s Oscar selection process descended into chaos, with all but two of the 23 eligible films withdrawing from consideration for the international feature film race at the 97th Academy Awards, industry reps met with government officials this week to hash out their grievances and plot a way forward amid growing frustrations with the state of the beleaguered Greek film biz.
Producer Maria Drandaki, who was part of a delegation from the Audiovisual Producers’ Association of Greece (SAPOE) that met with culture ministry reps on Tuesday, said the Oscars fiasco is just “the tip of the iceberg.” “I think the problem now is getting bigger than the Oscars,” she said. “This whole mishandling of the situation is getting combined with the tension that was here in the audiovisual sector for months now.” She added: “There’s a lot of tension that we’ve been trying to handle…and we were never heard [by the government].” Earlier this month, the Greek culture ministry selected four industry professionals to choose the country’s submission for the international Oscar race.
They included film critic Leda Galanou, actress Kora Karvounis, screenwriter Kallia Papadakis and director Vassilis Kekatos, who won the Cannes short film Palme d’Or in 2019 for “The Distance Between Us and the Sky,” with Kekatos tapped to head the committee.
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