From films about climate change and Indigenous Australians to travel and the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, the Greek Student Short Film Festival returned to Sydney with a bang after two years.
The student festival was organised as part of the 2022 Greek Film Festival this year and was proudly presented by Bendigo Bank, the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW) and the Greek Festival of Sydney.
Held at Leichhardt’s Palace Norton Street Cinema on Sunday, October 23 from 12.30pm, the festival was attended by a number of young Greek students, their proud parents, grandparents and teachers, as well as various distinguished guests.
These distinguished guests included the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis; Press Councillor at the Consulate of Greece in Sydney, Konstantinos Yiannakodimos; the Chair of the Greek Festival of Sydney, Nia Karteris; the President of GOCNSW, Harry Danalis; the Secretary of GOCNSW, Michael Tsilimos; NSW Education Community Languages Schools Program Coordinator, Lyndall Franks; and the President of the NSW Federation of Community Languages, Lucia Jones; among many others.
Everyone in attendance enjoyed watching various films from Greek students and schools across Australia. The films centred around the main theme of ‘Returning to our life’ in all forms, whether that was returning to one’s Greek roots, their family or home.
This year’s signature item, which needed to be included in each film, was a spinning top toy and each entry creatively wove it into their productions.
At the end of the screenings, emcee Artemis Theodoris invited Mr Danalis and the Consul General to the stage for short speeches, before the winners of the student festival were announced.
The ‘First Prize for Primary School’ category was won by the GOCNSW Clemton Park Public School Saturday School with their entry ‘Back to normality.’ They were guided by their teacher, Vicki Tomaras.
The ‘First Prize for Secondary’ category was won by the St Spyridon Greek Afternoon and Saturday School with their entry ‘The time machine.’ Their teacher was Helen Pavlidis.
Following these announcements, Certificates of Participation were handed out to students from St Spyridon College, the GOCNSW Clemton Park Public School Saturday School and High School, and Theodore Boulos for his independent film entry.
The Greek Herald spoke to Year 10 St Spyridon student, Savvas Aspropotamitis, after the award ceremony and he said he was “honoured” to have won in the ‘Secondary’ category with his school’s film about the Ancient Greek gods reacting to modern society.
“We saw it as a good thing to do and as a way to express our creativity as a class. It feels incredible to have won,” Savvas said.
Savvas’ teacher, Ms Pavlidis, added that she was “really impressed” with her students and the hard work they put in to finalise their film festival entry.
“I just think it’s those extra things you do at Greek school that will remain memorable and I find that these memories will live with us for a long time,” Ms Pavlidis added.
We also had a chance to speak with Ms Tomaras, the school teacher of the winning film in the ‘Primary School’ category, and she said she was happy with how the festival went and thanked the students and teachers for their support.
“It’s been a very successful event and next year I’d like to see more students participating and more teachers on board,” Ms Tomaras said with an encouraging smile.
*All photos by The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
