The 30th Greek Film Festival of Sydney, proudly presented by Benchmark Greek Law, has announced a special collaboration with the Athenian Association of NSW to welcome renowned Greek director, writer, and actor, Renos Haralambidis.
Haralambidis will be visiting Sydney from October 24th to 27th, 2025, for a dedicated retrospective celebrating his remarkable body of work. All five of his feature films will be screened at various venues throughout Sydney during the festival, which runs from October 14th to 26th.
Haralambidis is a pioneering Greek filmmaker known for his playful and contemporary films that blur the lines between reality and fiction. With a career spanning nearly three decades, he is celebrated for introducing digital technology to Greek cinema with his acclaimed 1997 debut, No Budget Story. This film, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, earned him a state award for first-time director and the FIPRESCI international critics’ award.
Prior to his directorial success, Haralambidis honed his craft through a variety of media roles, including acting in stage productions like Oedipus Rex and Greek television shows. He received an acting award for his role in The Adventures of a Young Man Who Is Looking for Advice on his First Date (1994) and starred in numerous short and feature films, including the popular Paterfamilias (1997).
His subsequent directorial features, such as the timeless Cheap Smokes (1999) and the romantic comedy-cop caper The Heart of the Beast (2005), have been met with critical and popular acclaim. His film Four Black Suits (2010) represented Greece at the European Academy of Cinema and won the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.
Haralambidis’ films resonate deeply with Greek audiences by realistically portraying the lives of contemporary Greek men struggling with career and cultural challenges, often infused with sharp wit and humour. His work captures the simple pleasures of life, transforming fragmentation into a unified tale of possibility. His fifth feature film, Athens Midnight Radio (2024), is set to close the 30th Greek Film Festival of Sydney on Sunday October 26th, 2025.
Nia Karteris, Chair of the Greek Festival and the Greek Film Festival of Sydney, commented on the significance of the visit: “To host Renos Haralambidis is to welcome a true visionary of modern Greek cinema to our shores. His retrospective is a testament to the enduring power of his storytelling, and we are honoured to share his unique cinematic universe with Australian audiences.”
Cathy Valis, President of the Athenian Association of NSW, expressed her committee’s enthusiasm for the collaboration: “It is an honour and a privilege for the Athenian Association of NSW to be part of this venture. We deeply appreciate this opportunity to celebrate our culture and deepen the roots of Hellenism here in Australia. We are so lucky to have such an esteemed Athenian join us, and we are thrilled to support this beautiful collaboration.”
When asked about his upcoming visit and the retrospective, Haralambidis shared a heartfelt statement.
“My films are being shown on the big screen for the first time, so far from where they were shot — the heart of Athens and, in a few cases, the surrounding region of Attica. I’m moved to be talking about the mythical southern hemisphere, beyond the horizon. The capital of New South Wales, the city of Sydney, feels to my childlike imagination like an ancient Greek colony of brave Ionian seafarers who arrived on their triremes, alongside the dugout canoes of the indigenous seafarers,” he said.
“I’ve caught myself thinking of Sydney as the “other side of the world,” where something deep connects me. The time has now come for “the other side of the world” to become the centre of my cinematic universe. I hope the audience of my films in Sydney will see Athens on the big screen not as a corresponding “other side of the world” but as some otherworldly centre of Sydney, since the authentic Greek world resides in people’s hearts and is always a centre, never a side, no matter which hemisphere it is in. Greece has always existed beyond geography. As has cinema.”
The 30th Greek Film Festival of Sydney invites all cinema lovers and members of the community to join in this special celebration of Greek culture and film.
Event Details:
- What: Retrospective and visit of Renos Haralambidis as part of the 30th Greek Film Festival Sydney
- When: 24th – 27th October 2025
- Where: Palace Cinema Norton St, 99 Norton St, Leichardt, NSW 2040 & Palace Cinema Moore Park, 122 Lang Rd, Moore Park NSW 2021
- Tickets & Full Program: https://greekfilmfestival.com.au/sydney
Further details on the upcoming Film Festival, including how to buy tickets, can be found at https://greekfilmfestival.com.au/sydney
