Greece Invited to Submit Films for the 96th Oscars Race

Photo source: Academy Awards.

The Greek Culture Ministry has recently issued a call to film producers interested in submitting their movies for the Greek nomination in the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards.

The call is addressed to Greek filmmakers who meet the criteria as set out in this year’s Oscar regulations available here, with the ministry underlining that it is solely responsible to run the selection process.

Greece’s Selection Process

According to a 2010 Greek law, every year the Culture Minister announces a seven member committee of renowned professionals representing primarily the film sector, that will be responsible with evaluating the submitted Greek films. The committee’s members shouldn’t be relate in any way with any of the evaluated films, and their proposal should take under consideration the Oscar regulations for the particular category as well as the artistic merit of the film and its possible universal appeal.

In order for a film’s nomination to be valid, the following documents must be submitted to the ministry:

1. the producer’s application with original signature, which includes the exact title of the film, its duration (over 40 minutes) and its genre (fiction, documentary, animated film)
2. certificate of Greek citizenship (issued, upon request, by the Greek Film Centre)
3. documents proving that the first, official release of the film took place for seven consecutive days in a commercial cinema theater with tickets.

Interested parties must send an e-mail to the Department of Cinematography and Audiovisual Media of the Directorate of Performing Arts and Cinema of the culture ministry at tmkom@culture.gr by August 31.

A promo still from Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth.

Greece’s proposals in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards have managed to reach the final five nominated group of films, five times.

More specifically, Michael Cacoyannis’ film Electra was nominated in 1962, followed by Vassilis Georgiadis’ The Red Lanterns in 1963. Two years later Georgiadis managed another nomination with his film Blood on the Land. Cacoyannis second nomination came in 1977 with his film Iphigenia. Greece’s latest top 5 nomination in the category came in 2010 with Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth.