ATHENS, GREECE – By Phaedon Boukas, Photo:SHUTTERSTOCK
Athens Correspondent
Shedding its reputation as unfriendly to foreign filmmakers, Greece is surfing the crest of its Weird Wave of surreal films and directors like Yorgos Lanthimos to be the 2027 Cannes Film Market honored country.
That will be May 11-19, running with the Cannes Film Festival that showcases world class films. The Film Market (Marché du Film) is a commercial trade show where industry professionals buy, sell and finance films.
The honor comes on top of Athens hosting the European Film Awards in January, 2027, further adding to the luster of Greek films, especially the Oscar-nominated Lanthimos, who has had films premiere at Cannes.
“We are incredibly proud that the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Centre – Creative Greece has successfully secured Athens as the host city of the 39th European Film Awards an event that takes place for the first time in the Southeastern Europe,” said Leonidas Christopoulos, CEO of the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center – Creative Greece (EKKOMED.)
He did not respond to Greek News USA’s request for a comment on the dual honors but the Film Market said the distinction would celebrate Greece’s “remarkable rise as one of Europe’s leading audiovisual hubs and recognizes its growing influence on the global film and audiovisual landscape.”
The honors may be aimed at directors like Anthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari, a compatriot with Lanthimos in making bizarre films but they coincide with Greece reaching out to foreign directors and producers.
It goes beyond symbolism as the country’s audiovisual sector contributes €1.9 billion ($2.18 billion) to the economy, supports some 44,000 jobs, and includes nearly 3,000 companies active across production, post-production, animation, and related creative services, said the entertainment site Deadline.
After a backlash from foreign filmmakers about state subsidies being long delayed, EKKOMED said in April it’s releasing funds, with applications for a 40 percent cash rebate backed by a €100 million ($114.59 million) pool.
And the government is setting aside €750 million ($859.39 million) in a 5-year strategy covering film, TV, animation, digital gaming and music festivals, utilizing investments, training initiatives, and international promotion.
Officials said the program is designed to attract foreign productions, strengthen domestic creators, and generate high-quality jobs and try to make Greece a global production hub after the country was once shunned.
It’s a stunning turnaround for Greece that not too many years ago was indifferent and even hostile to foreign filmmakers, leading to Eleni, the story of famed writer Nicholas Gage’s mother being executed by Communists in 1948 during the Civil War, being made in Spain.
Where are the Greeks?
That was in 1984 but in 2017 the film Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, the sequel to the wildly successful Mamma Mia – primarily shot on the islands of Skiathos and Skopelos – was filmed in Croatia, which offered a higher rebate.
The 2016 film Bourne, starring Matt Damon, featured a riot set in Syntagma Square, in the heart of Athens, but it was filmed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain – which offered a better tax deal.
In an ironic twist a filmmaker might deliver, Damon on July 17 will lead the release of British-American director Christopher Nolan’s take on The Odyssey, the American actor playing Odyssey – with a bit of a Boston accent.
While Greek films are enjoying a bit of a renaissance, Greek actors are not in foreign films. Nolan has been blistered for not having any Greeks in the epic after saying he wanted a worldly class – which excludes Greece.
Three Greek films were selected for the Cannes Festival this year: Κonstantina Kotzamani’s Titanic Ocean, Alexandra Mathaiou’s Free Eliza (Notes on an Anatomical Imperfection) and the restored 1953 film Eva by Maria Plyta.
Lanthimos’ 2025 film Bugonia – mostly filmed in Budapest – got Greek state subsidies for a portion shot on the island of Milos but his films since 2018 have otherwise been shot in England, London, Paris, Lisbon, New Orleans and Atlanta. But they have brought a focus on Greek directors.
The Cannes Film Market noted that other films shot in Greece include Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk and Charlie Kaufman’s How to Shoot a Ghost, while Greek-American director Christopher Andre Marks has written and shot his heist film Mykonos, shot on the island.
One of Marks’ producers is Milwaukee Bucks NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and the director, who garnered notice with his 2021 documentary King Otto – about the coach for Greece’s improbable 2004 European soccer championship – is planning more films shot in Greece.
King Otto was released in 75 countries and raised the standing of Marks’ Studio Galazio film company.
“Being Greek is kind of a dominant trait; it’s an inherent part of who you are. But I also see Greece as an opportunity,” he told the British magazine site Monocle about his ambitions and Greece’s rising profile.
Greece has been a premier film shoot scene for the 2021 film Beckett, starring Denzel Washington’s son John David Washington, about a tourist caught up in a political manhunt; Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in 2022 and Netflix’s first Greek series, Maestro in Blue, that’s set on the island of Paxos, has been running since 2002.
Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Marché du Film told Deadline: “We are delighted to welcome Greece into the spotlight in Cannes and look forward to showcasing the extraordinary talent, stories, and opportunities emerging from this new Greek wave.”
That’s a lot different from just seven months earlier, in November 2025, when the major trade site Variety said a 60-second animated spot produced for the Thessaloniki Film Festival said Greece “ranks dead last in Europe when it comes to public support for its audiovisual industry.”
Now comes The Odyssey.
