TOP HONORS FOR ARCADIA AND TO A LAND UNKNOWN AT THE 16th HELLENIC FILM ACADEMY AWARDS

12 Jun 2025

Homemade Films’ co-productions ARCADIA by Yorgos Zois and TO A LAND UNKNOWN by Mahdi Fleifel received top honors at the 16th Hellenic Film Academy Awards 2025:

BEST FILM (producers: Antigoni Rota, Maria Drandaki, Stelios Cotionis, Veselka Kiryakova, Andreas Georgiadis), BEST DIRECTOR (Yorgos Zois) and BEST SCREENPLAY (Konstantina Kotzamani, Yorgos Zois) for ARCADIA, and

BEST GREEK MINORITY CO-PRODUCTION AWARD (Maria Drandaki) for TO A LAND UNKNOWN!

Thank you to the members of the Hellenic Film Academy for voting for our films, and congratulations to both films’ amazing teams!

15 NOMINATIONS FOR ARCADIA AND TO A LAND UNKNOWN AT THE 16TH IRIS AWARDS

09 May 2025

Yorgos Zois’ ARCADIA and Mahdi Fleifel’s TO A LAND UNKNOWN gathered 15 nominations at the 16th Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy 2025!

Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Supporting Role Actress, Cinematography, Editing, Music, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound, Hair Make-up & SFX Make-up, VFX & SFX nominations for ARCADIA.

Best Greek Minority Co-production 2025 for TO A LAND UNKNOWN.

Congratulations to all the nominees and the films’ teams!

ARCADIA: BEST ACTRESS AWARD FOR ANGELIKI PAPOULIA IN BARI

01 Apr 2025

Angeliki Papoulia won the Best Actress Award for her powerful performance in Yorgos Zois’ Arcadia, at the Bari International Film Festival 2025!

Arcadia was also the recipient of the Best Narrative Feature Film Award at the San Francisco Greek Film Festival, last week!

4 AWARDS FOR HOMEMADE FILMS AT THE 65th THESSALONIKI IFF

14 Nov 2024

Two Homemade Films co-productions, To A Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel and Arcadia by Yorgos Zois, participated at the International Competition section of the 65th Thessaloniki IFF, winning 4 awards!

Best Actor for the wonderful Mahmood Bakri and the Audience Award for To A Land Unknown.

The F.I.PRES.C.I. prize for the International Competition and the J.F. Costopoulou Foundation Award for Arcadia.

A very special thank you to the Thessaloniki Film Festival audience for the sold-out screenings and for embracing our two films so warmly and a shout-out to Angeliki Papoulia, the amazing star of both films.

SOFIA EXARCHOU’S ANIMAL NOMINATED FOR THE LUX AUDIENCE AWARD 2025

18 Sep 2024

Sofia Exarchou’s ANIMAL is one of the five films nominated for the 2024 LUX Audience Award by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, in collaboration with Creative Europe MEDIA and Europa Cinemas!

The LUX Audience Award nominated films raise awareness about current social and political issues and engage audiences in debates about Europe in a thought-provoking way, and reflect the beauty and diversity of European cinema. Both the public and Members of the European Parliament (50% each) can rate for the films online. The film with the highest total score will win the LUX Audience Award. The winner will be announced in April 2025.

ANIMAL is the third Greek film to reach the final nominations’ roster of the LUX Award in its history!

The five amazing nominated European films this year are: ‘Animal’ by Sofia Exarchou, ‘Dahomey’ by Mati Diop, ‘Flow’ by Gints Zibalodis, ‘Intercepted’ by Oksana Karpovych, ‘Julie Keeps Quiet’ by Leonardo Van Dul.

We are so proud! Congratulations to all the amazing ANIMAL team!

Vote for ANIMAL, here

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR TO YORGOS ZOIS FOR ARCADIA

23 Aug 2024

The amazing International Competition jury of the 30th Sarajevo International Film Festival (Paul Schrader, Sebastian Cavazza, Una Gunjak, Juho Kuosmanen and Noomi Rapace) awarded Yorgos Zois with the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director for Arcadia!

YORGOS ZOIS’ ARCADIA SELECTED FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2024

14 Aug 2024

Yorgos Zois’ ARCADIA (Berlinale, Encounters Competition 2024) was selected at the first batch of the feature films eligible for the European Film Awards 2024!

NORTH-AMERICAN PREMIERE FOR TO A LAND UNKNOWN AT TORONTO

06 Aug 2024

Mahdi Fleifel’s TO A LAND UNKNOWN set for a North-American premiere at the Toronto IFF – Centerpiece in September! Check for screenings @ tiff.net

7 HELLENIC FILM ACADEMY AWARDS FOR SOFIA EXARCHOU’S ANIMAL

27 Jun 2024

In a triumphant night, ANIMAL swept the Hellenic Film Academy Iris Awards 2024, with 7 wins in major categories:

BEST FILM (Maria Drandaki, Maria Kontogianni, Lukas Valenta Rinner, Stelios Kammitsis, Laura Sterian, Ivan Tonev, Vicky Micha)
BEST DIRECTOR (Sofia Exarchou)
BEST SCREENPLAY (Sofia Exarchou)
BEST ACTRESS (Dimitra Vlagopoulou)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Flomaria Papadaki)
BEST EDITING (Dragos Apetri, Nikos Vavouris)
BEST SOUND (Odo Grötschnig, Sebastian Watzinger, Thomas Pötz Kava, Rudolf Gottsberger, Valia Tserou, Kistqs Varybopiotis, Christos Gousios)

Congratulations to all the ANIMAL team!

14 HELLENIC FILM ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR ANIMAL

30 Apr 2024

Sofia Exarchou’s Animal has been nominated for 14 awards at the Hellenic Film Academy Iris Awards 2024!

Best Film (Maria Drandaki, Maria Kontogianni, Lukas Valenta Rinner, Laura Sterian, Stelios Kammitsis, Ivan Tonev) – Best Director (Sofia Exarchou) – Best Screenplay (Sofia Exarchou) – Best Actress (Dimitra Vlagopoulou) – Best Supporting Role Actress (Flomaria Papadaki) – Best Supporting Role Actor (Ahilleas Hariskos) – Best Photography – Best Editing – Best Music – Best Production Design – Best Costume Design – Best Sound – Best Hair Make-up & SFX Make-up design – Best VFX design

TO A LAND UNKNOWN PREMIERES IN CANNES TO RAVE REVIEWS AND A 9MIN. STANDING OVATION

23 May 2024

Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes to an emotional 9min. standing ovation by the audience and rave reviews from the international press.

“Palestinian filmmaker’s narrative debut channels the spirit of Bicycle Thieves. Mahdi Fleifel delivers a confident, fully-realized drama featuring a lead performance from Mahmood Bakri which should attract international attention for both actor and director.”
-Catherine Bray, Variety

“This Palestinian Twist on ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Is Full of Masterful Storytelling and Wrenching Humanity. To A Land Unknown is a social realist drama buoyed by two gorgeous central performances, a nuanced portrait of a mercurial male relationship told with assurance and steel. This is a tour-de-force of empathic storytelling, with its genre narrative bursting with an overabundance of humanity. Grade: A-”
-Sophie Monks Kaufman, Indiewire

“Two desperate Palestinian cousins are hopelessly stranded in Athens, Greece, in Mahdi Fleifel’s heartbreaking migrant drama. Arrestingly plotted and bracingly acted, this story about the biting hardships faced by refugees who have left the danger of their homeland only to be left nationless could hardly be more relevant. The only Palestinian feature premiering at Cannes, To A Land Unknown is crafted with painstaking care, and features two strong lead performances that are thoughtfully translated to the screen by an empathetic lens.”
-Robert Daniels, Screen Daily

TO A LAND UNKNOWN BY MAHDI FLEIFEL TO PREMIERE AT THE DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT 2024

17 Apr 2024

Homemade Films’ co-production To A Land Unknown, the fiction feature film debut by multi-awarded Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel (A World Not Ours, A Man Returned, A Drowning Man), will have its world premiere at the 56th Quinzaine des Cinéastes in Cannes 2024.

A co-production of UK-France-Germany-the Netherlands-Greece-Quatar-Saudi Arabia-Palestine, To a Land Unknown, is produced by Geoff Arbourne and Mahdi Fleifel, and co-produced by Maria Drandaki, Layla Meijman,Maarten van der Ven and Francois Morisset.

WORLD PREMIERE FOR YORGOS ZOIS’ ARCADIA @ THE ENCOUNTERS COMPETITION OF THE 74th BERLINALE

22 Jan 2024

Just announced! Arcadia, Yorgos Zois’ sophomore feature will have its world premiere at the Encounters Competition of the 74th Berlinale.

Arcadia brings together for the first time on film, two of Greek cinema’s most prolific and fascinating actors: Vangelis Mourikis and Angeliki Papoulia.

A Greek-Bulgarian-American co-production (Foss Productions, Homemade Films, Red Carpet Films), supported by Eurimages, Greek Film Centre, Bulgarian Film Centre, EKOME, Onassis Culture and Flux. Beta Cinema handles the film’s world sales.

AWARDS FOR ANIMAL @ VALLADOLID, VANCOUVER, THESSALONIKI, SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA, CORK, BRUSSELS, LES ARCS

12 Dec 2023

A string of awards for Sofia Exarchou’s ANIMAL in festivals around the world !

Seminci – Valladolid International Film Week 2023 (Winner: Special Mention of the Jury)

Vancouver IFF 2023 (Winner: Vanguard Award 2023)

Thessaloniki International Film Festival – International Competition 2o23 (Winner: Golden Alexander – Theo Angelopoulos for Best Film, Best Actress for Dimitra Vlagopoulou, Crew United Award)

Cineuropa 37 – Santiago de Compostella (Winner: Best Screenplay Award for Sofia Exarchou),

Cork Film Festival (Winner: Spirit of the Festival Award – Best Film)

Cinemamed – Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival (Winner: Jury Special Mention, Citizens’ Jury Award, Cineuropa Prize)

Les Arcs (Winner: Best Performance for Dimitra Vlagopoulou)

Congratulations to all the team and a thank you to all the juries!

GOLDEN ALEXANDER FOR SOFIA EXARCHOU’S ANIMAL

13 Nov 2023

Sofia Exarchou’s ANIMAL was the big winner of the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, winning the Golden Alexander – Theo Angelopoulos, the Best Film award of the International Competition!

Marking the importance of the win, the International Competition Jury (producer Diana Elbaum, journalist and former head of the Berlinale Dieter Kosslick, and producer-director Elina Psykou), mentioned that it’s the first time in 30 years that a Greek film wins the prestigious award of the biggest national film festival.

ANIMAL also won two more awards: the International Competition Best Actress Award for Dimitra Vlagopoulou’s performance, and in the side juries awards, the Crew United Award.

Congratulations to all the team!

SEE Cinema Network Award for My Soul Startled

13 Nov 2023

Syllas Tzoumerkas’ upcoming feature film project, MY SOUL STARTLED won the SEE Cinema Network Development Award at the Agora of the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

MY SOUL STARTLED is produced by Homemade Films and co-produced by Nefertiti Film (IT) and Sister Films (FR).

ANIMAL BY SOFIA EXARCHOU SELECTED FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2023

27 Sep 2023

Sofia Exarchou’s Animal is in the shortlist of films contending for the European Film Awards 2023. A co-production of Greece, Austria, Romani, Cyprus and Bulgaria, Animal had its world premiere at the International Competition of the Locarno International Film Festival 2023 where it was awarded with the Pardo for the Best Performance for Dimitra Vlagopoulou. Shellac Sales handles the film’s world sales. Upcoming festival stops: Haifa IFF, the Viennale ’23, Seminci, Vancouver IFF and the 52nd Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montréal.

PARDO FOR BEST PERFORMANCE FOR ANIMAL’S DIMITRA VLAGOPOULOU @ LOCARNO IFF !

12 Aug 2023

Pardo for Best Performance to Dimitra Vlagopoulou for Sofia Exarchou’s ANIMAL at the International Competition of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival!!!

WORLD PREMIERE FOR WORKING CLASS GOES TO HELL @ TIFF MIDNIGHT MADNESS 2023

08 Aug 2023

Working Class Goes to Hell by Mladen Djordjevic will have its world premiere at the Midnight Madness section of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival!

A small-town labour union turns to the dark arts for empowerment against the corrupt forces in their community in Mladen Đorđević’s timely and disturbing socio-horror satire, a co-production of Serbia, Greece (Homemade Films), Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia and Romania.

WORLD PREMIERE FOR ANIMAL BY SOFIA EXARCHOU @ LOCARNO76 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

04 Jul 2023

Just announced! Animal by Sofia Exarchou to have its world premiere at the International Competition of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival! Read more @ Locarno Official Site

SHELLAC BOARDS ANIMAL BY SOFIA EXARCHOU

04 Jul 2023

Shellac boarded Sofia Exarchou’s sophomore feature film Animal and it will handle its world sales. “Animal”, a co-production of Greece-Austria-Romania-Cyprus-Bulgaria, will have its world premiere in August 2023 at the International Competition of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival.

KONSTANTINA KOTZAMANI’S TITANIC OCEAN RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM EURIMAGES

06 Dec 2022

Konstantina Kotzamani’s debut feature TITANIC OCEAN, a co-production of Greece, France, Romania, Germany, Spain and Japan received support from Eurimages! Congratulations to all the team and all our partners.

CHRISTOS PASSALIS’ SILENCE 6-9 AT THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF THE 63rd THESSALONIKI IFF

25 Oct 2022

After its world premiere at Karlovy Vary Chrystal Globe Competition, Christos Passalis’ Silence 6-9 will have its national premiere at the International Competition of the 63rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival (3-13 November 2022).

CREATIVE EUROPE – MEDIA SLATE FUNDING FOR HOMEMADE FILMS

19 Jun 2022

Homemade Films has been granted support from Creative Europe – Media Slate Funding!

Congratulations to everyone who worked and collaborated for this (Maria Drandaki, Kyveli Short, Vasia Attarian, Vicky Miha, Hermione Efstratiades), to our partners, and to all the artists and their amazing projects:

ANIMAL by Sofia Exarchou (feature, Atélier, Cannes)
MY SOUL STARTLED by Syllas Tzoumerkas (Berlinale Co-production Market, feature)
PATRIMONIAL FEARS AND OTHER SYMPTOMS by Elina Psykou (Berlinale Co-production Market, Cinelink, feature)
FUTURE TENSES by Christos Karakepelis (Visions du Réel, feature documentary)
HOPEPUNK by Vasiliki Lazaridou (short)

We’ll be more than happy to bring these amazing projects to life over the next period!

WORLD PREMIERE FOR CHRISTOS PASSALIS’ SILENCE 6-9 AT THE 56th KARLOVY VARY IFF

31 May 2022

World premiere for Christos Passalis’ feature SILENCE 6-9 at the International Competition of the 56th Karlovy Vary IFF!

See you all in Karlovy Vary for an amazing, melancholic love story like no other, starring Angeliki Papoulia and Christos Passalis.

“Aris and Anna meet one evening in a half-abandoned town surrounded by antennas. In this strange, dreamlike world the two solitary souls gradually start to develop feelings for one another… A melancholic love story with a mesmeric atmosphere and striking visuals that proves Greek cinema has lost nothing of its originality.” – KVIFF

Produced by Homemade Films, co-produced by ERT and Asterisk post with the support of Greek Film Centre, EKOME and the Athens Film Office.

NELY REGUERA’S LA VOLUNTARIA PREMIERES AT 25 FESTIVAL DE MÁLAGA

06 Mar 2022

La Voluntaria / The Volunteer, the second feature film by Nely Reguera, had its premiere at the 25 Festival de Málaga. It stars Carmen Machi as Marisa, a retired doctor who is dying to have grandchildren and decides to travel to a refugee camp, where the children need, in her opinion, people exactly like her.

La Voluntaria, a co-production of @fastenfilms @bteampictures and Homemade Films will hit screens in Spain in June 10.

PASSALIS’ AND TZOUMERKAS’ THE CITY AND THE CITY AT NEW DIRECTORS / NEW FILMS 2022

29 Mar 2022

North American premiere for Christos Passalis’ and Syllas Tzoumerkas’ THE CITY AND THE CITY at the New Directors / New Films 2022 by Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA!

Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas will present the film in New York, on April 23rd at MoMA T2 and on April 24th at FLC Walter-Reade Theater.

“Using a radical, endlessly surprising narrative structure and a distinctive stylistic approach, Greek filmmakers Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas tell of how the once-thriving Sephardic Jewish community in their native city of Thessaloniki was gradually decimated over the course of the violent 20th century. It’s a properly disjointed and unsettled tale, zigzagging across time, and taking place on parallel contemporary and historical tracks, tracing moments of anti-Semitic persecution, the Nazi occupation of Greece, and lingering postwar trauma. Originating as an installation project, The City and the City is a film of devastating emotional clarity and relentless force.”

THE CITY AND THE CITY BERLINALE ENCOUNTERS PREMIERE

17 Feb 2022

World premiere for The City and the City @ Berlinale and the first – rave – reviews are here:

“An absorbing and appropriately disturbing indictment of man’s inhumanity to man. (…) A heartfelt, sorrowful and elegiac love-letter to Thessaloniki, which before the Second World War was a dazzlingly polyglot cosmopolis.”
-Neil Young, Screen Daily

“The genius in The City and the City is the seemingly nonchalant and subtle amalgamation of the past and the present. The two cities in the name of the film refer to one singular Thessaloniki. It is the time that creates the duality, and not the space.Passalis and Tzoumerkas employ an ingenious technique here.”
-Suvo Pyne, High on Films

“***** – The creative choices employed by co-directors Syllas Tzoumerkas and Christos Passalis have led to a non-traditional war film that feels quite radical in the most beguiling way.”
-Oliver Johnston – The Upcoming

“****1/2 – Cinematically brilliant and thematically relevant”
-Meredith Taylor – FilmUforia

“*** – In this unsettling mea culpa, the Jewish community’s loss and fear are palpable.”
-Alex Goldstein – One Room With A View

The world sales of the film are represented by Syndicado.

THE CITY AND THE CITY BY PASSALIS & TZOUMERKAS AT THE 72nd BERLINALE / ENCOUNTERS

19 Jan 2022

Just announced: Christos Passalis’ and Syllas Tzoumerkas’ THE CITY AND THE CITY will have its world premiere at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (10-20 February 2022) and the Encounters official competition section!

A co-production of the Greek National Opera and Homemade Films, with the collaboration of Thessaloniki International Film Festival, THE CITY AND THE CITY narrates in a razor-sharp way the untold story of the life and perils of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki.

MAHDI FLEIFEL’S UPCOMING FEATURE FILM PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE HUBERT BALS FUND and the NFF

29 Nov 2021

XENOS, the upcoming feature film by Mahdi Fleifel, a co-production of Denmark (Bullitt Film), Greece (Homemade Films) and the Netherlands (Studio Ruba) received support from the joint programme of the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund!

Mahdi Fleifel’s debut feature documentary, A World Not Ours (2012), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and picked up over 30 awards, including the Peace Film Prize and the Panorama Audience Award at the 2013 Berlinale and the Edinburgh, Yamagata and DOC:NYC Grand Jury Prizes. Mahdi’s 2016 short film, A Man Returned, won the Silver Bear and the European Film Nomination at the Berlinale and his latest short film, A Drowning Man, a co-production of Homemade Films, formed part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2017 and was nominated for a BAFTA award.