June 17, 2015

5th Athens Open Air Festival

The Athens Open Air Film Festival is one of the most spectacular events of the country! The festival takes place for the fifth consecutive year with more than twenty projections in the most prominent neighborhoods of Athens converting the city into a film oasis.

From June until September, with the kind support of the Greek National Tourism Organization, historical monuments of great importance and wonderful neighborhoods of Athens will transform into open-air movie theaters with free entrance! These include the pedestrian zone of Dionysiou Areopagitou, the Academy Park of Plato, Drakopoulou Villa, the National Archaeological Museum, the Park of Petralona, the Numismatic Museum and the Square of Avdi. This year, screenings embrace other venues including the Benaki Museum, the Train at Rouf Theatre and the Open Theatre of Kolonos. In new collaborations of the festival is the one with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival and the projections of tho lyric plays in the movie screen of the garden of Pireaus 260. These include the Magic Flute by Ingmar Bergman, with support of the Embassy of Sweden, and Tales of Hoffmann of Michael Powell and Emerik Presmpergker.

Having won the first prize at the 2015 Tourism Awards in the Cultural Tourism category, the Athens Open Air Film Festival presents a carefully selected program that covers the broad spectrum of the seventh art aiming to aspire and entertain even the most demanding audience.

Some of the most legendary films of American cinema including the Bad and the Beautiful by Vincente Minnelli, The Trouble with Harry by Alfred Hitchcock, Leave her to Heaven by John Stahl, the French Connection by William Friedkinm and Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kublic will be shown as part of the festival. Other projections of the modern period of American filmography will be projected such as Bulworth by Wareen Beatty, After Hours by Martin Scorsese, Altered States by Ken Russel and Close Encounters of the Third Kind from Steven Spielberg. The projection of these films is made with the support of Embassy of the United States of America in Greece. One of the most exemplary documentaries of Greek cinema, the award-winning ΡΟΜ by Menelaus Karamaghiolis, the lyrical tale  Spring Synaxis of the Field Guards by Dimos Avdeliotis, an excellent example of modern Greek theater, the erotic drama of Nikos Vergitsis namely Revenge and the touching Hard Goodbyes: My Father by Penny Panayiotopoulos compose this year’s Greece section of Athens Open Air Film Festival presenting a sample of modern Greek cinematography. It is worth noting that the Athens Open Air Film Festival is involved in the celebrations of the National Day of France on July 14 with the support of the French Institute of Greece. The most beautiful Gothic creation ever, the masterpiece Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) by Friedrich Wilem Murnau will be musically presented from the Mechanimal creating a wonderful spectacle just for the festival.

The poster of the 5th Athens Open Air Film Festival was made from famous street artist, WD Wild Drawing from Bali.

Entrance to all the screenings has free admission with the support of the Greek National Tourism Organization. For the detailed program of the festival, please visit www.cinemag.gr

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