LA Greek Film Festival Announces Winners; Honors Alexander Payne (Video)

The 11th Annual Los Angeles Greek Film Festival took place at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, June 7-11. One of the most important international Greek cinema events, the festival picked the Tribeca Film Festival-winning feature “Son of Sofia” for its last screening of the week. The best films, documentaries, and performances of the festival were honored with Orpheus Awards, while Oscar-winner Alexander Payne was honored at the end of the evening by LAGFF for his filmmaking work over the past couple of decades.

Watch Alexander Payne receiving his award:

The full list of Orpheus Award winners is below:

Best Feature: AMERIKA SQUARE by Yiannis Sakaridis

Best Documentary: THE PATRIARCH’S ROOM by Danae Elon

Van Vlahakis Best Short Film: PLAY by Vangelis Liberopoulos

Best Performance: CONSTANTINOS FRAMAKAS in “Boy on the Bridge”

Audience Choice Award: THE OTHER ME by Sotiris Tsafoulias

The Van Vlahakis prize was given by Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks; it is named after her father Van, the founder of Earth Friendly Products.

The full list of Special Jury Prize winners is below:

Feature Award: SON OF SOFIA by Elina Psykou

Documentary Award: JANUS: REFUGEE PASSAGE TO EUROPE by Alexandros Spathis

Short Award: LIMBO by Konstantina Kotzamani

Performance: EVANGELIA ANDREADAKI in “SMAC”

Watch interviews from the red carpet:

In addition to the above prizes, the International Project Discovery Forum (IPDF) Aegean Award, which was awarded to Elina Psykou two years ago to help fund the current closing night film “Son of Sofia”, was given to Hasan Serin this year for his project “I Will No Longer Be Someone Else”. The Mediterranean Film Institute was awarded to Thelyia Petrakis for “Brazil”.

The closing night of this celebration of Greek cinema was hosted by comedian and actor Demetri Martin; presenters throughout the evening included Simon Kassianides, Christos Vasilopoulos, Jim Gianopulos, and Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks.