ASTORIA, NY ––
Hellenic Film Society (HFS) kicks off its annual New York Greek Film Expo, a Greek film festival for all New Yorkers, with a special Opening Night Screening, the US of the comedy Murphy’s Law, starring award-winning actors Katia Goulioni and Andreas Konstantinou, and directed by Angelos Frantzis. All three will be in attendance and participate in a Q&A with the audience.
In a bravura performance, Katia Goulioni plays a failed, deeply conflicted, actress longing for major roles. A serious accident on her 40th birthday thrusts her into an alternate reality where she must play the parts that could have been hers had she made different choices in life. Termed by its producers as a “psychoanalytic screwball comedy,” the film, with its frantic pace and mixing of genres and tones, is as unpredictable as it is flamboyantly original. For this role, Goulioni was nominated for Best Actress by the Hellenic Film Academy.
The film also stars Victoria Elizabeth Bitouni; 2024 Expo host Thanos Tokakis; Constantine Makroulakis; the legendary, award-winning Vangelio Andreadaki; Daphne Alexander; and Nikos Kouros.
The Expo will continue in Manhattan at Village East Theater, October 3-5, before moving to the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, NJ on October 7-8.
Now in its seventh iteration, the Greek Film Expo, gives an overview of the range of current filmmaking in Greece, with films that will be of interest to a wide audience, such as “Meat”, “Utopolis”, “Takis”, “Wishbone”, “Little England”, “Brides”, “The Last Note”, “The Engagement of Anna”, “Kyuka: Before summer’s end” and “Arcadia” (Greece’s entry for Oscars 2026).
“This year’s slate will have something for everyone- comedy, suspense, drama, social impact, and so much more. We’re delighted that so many of Greece’s A-List filmmakers and actors will be attending the Expo and interacting with our audiences,” says Maria Miles, Hellenic Film Society president. “We are honored to bestow our Lifetime Achievement Award to director and master filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris who, in the course of five decades, has given us several cinematic masterpieces”.
The festival finale will take place October 10-12 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, featuring a special retrospective of the films of Pantelis Voulgaris, one of Greece’s most prominent filmmakers.
“As master filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris marks his 85th birthday later this month, the time seems right to present a retrospective of his work, an opportunity to revisit, enjoy and reassess some of his major films,” said Maria C. Miles, HFS president.
Four of the filmmaker’s films have been selected for an exciting lineup, including his first as well as his most recent film: The Engagement of Anna (1972), a heartfelt social drama; and The Last Note (2017), a harrowing, unflinching account of the execution of Greek resistance fighters at Kaisariani. From his mid-career, Brides (2004) starring Damian Lewis, is an epic and highly acclaimed story of post-World War I Greek mail-order brides bound for New York; and Little England (2013), a visually stunning tragic romance, about two sisters divided by their love for the same man.
“Any retrospective honoring Voulgaris also pays tribute to his wife and long-time partner, acclaimed novelist and scriptwriter Ioanna Karystiani. Their collaboration bears witness to enlightened creativity and has set a standard of excellence for generations of filmmakers who follow in their footsteps”, notes the HFS.
