Press Releases

The 23^rd Cyprus Film Days International Festival 2025 (4-12 April 2025) is excited to welcome a celebrated International Jury composed of five distinguished professionals from different corners of the cinematic world, bringing their experience and varied expertise to the table.

The Jury is chaired by Aleksandra Božović (Montenegro), acclaimed producer and Director of the Film Centre of Montenegro. Members include Delphine Leccas, independent film curator and art manager known for her boundary-crossing and eclectic projects; award winning Hungarian director and scriptwriter György Pálfi, widely acknowledged for his unique style; French co-founder and Director of Les Arcs Film Festival Guillaume Calop, highly experienced in the organisation of film events; and Agnes Scott, Cypriot actress of global acclaim with a dynamic presence in cinema.

The International Jury will watch and evaluate the seven international and three Cypriot films participating in this year’s Glocal Images International Competition Programme.

The winners will be announced on Saturday, 12 April 2025, during the closing and award ceremony at Rialto Theatre.

The Awards

To be presented at the Award Ceremony:

• Best Film Award, accompanied by €6,000.
• Best Cypriot Film Award, accompanied by post-production services, worth of €7,000, sponsored by Authorwave.
• Special Jury Award, accompanied by €3,000.
• Best Director Award, accompanied by €1,000.
• Best Cinematography Award, accompanied by €1,000, sponsored by Caretta Films.
• Best Cypriot Director Award, accompanied by €4,000 and the right to use The Studio, sponsored by CYENS Excellence Centre.
• Best Performance Award in a Cypriot Film, accompanied by €1,000,courtesy of the Municipality of Lemesos.

All the films screened in the official international competition section and the Cypriot films competition section are eligible for the Audience Award, decided on viewer votes cast right after each screening, and accompanied by €1,500, sponsored by Breaking Wave Productions.

*The awards conferred by the International Jury have the shape of a Neolithic human figure. They are faithful replicas of a stone idol found in the Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia, a UNESCO inscribed World Heritage Monument, dated to 7000-6000 B.C.

“The Jury presents”

On the occasion of the presence in Cyprus of György Pálfi, “The Jury presents” section enriches this year’s screening programme with Mindörökké [Perpetuity], the Hungarian filmmaker’s latest film, set in a post-apocalyptic Hungarian-Ukrainian village.

Information about the International Jury members

Aleksandra Božović is a producer, born in Belgrade (1979). She pursued her doctoral studies in Drama and Audiovisual Arts at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Since 2016, she has been living and working in Montenegro. She is married and a mother of a daughter. She began her professional career as the founder and director of two production companies. Over the past decade, in addition to her production work, she has held managerial positions in cultural institutions in multiple countries. Since 2021, she has served as the director of the Film Centre of Montenegro. She is a member of the Association of European Film Agency Directors (EFAD) since 2021 and the European Women's Audiovisual Network (EWA) since 2021.

Delphine Leccas is an art manager and curator who served as the artistic director of the International Festival of Arab Cinema in Marseille. She has curated numerous film programs, including “Who Knows What Yesterday Will Bring?” (a touring program), “Unfortunately, It Was Paradise” (Athens), “Tribute to Med Hondo” (Marseille), “In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country” (Athens and Beirut), and “Shifting Shores” at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as multidisciplinary events such as the Institute of Islamic Cultures (Paris), the Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (Thessaloniki and Ancona), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki), DEPO (Istanbul), and ZKM (Karlsruhe). Her experience extends to the production of major international events, including Home Works (Ashkal Alwan, Beirut) and documenta 14 (Athens).

György Pálfi is a film director, born and living in Budapest. He graduated from the Academy of Theatre and Film in 2000. Since then, he has made eight feature films (Hukkle, Taxidermia, I Am Not Your Friend, Final Cut, Freefall, His Master's Voice, Perpetuity and the newest Hen), as well as numerous short films, music videos, and commercials. Although his work has been awarded at prestigious festivals (European Film Award, Karlovy Vary Best director, Cannes official selection, etc.), he is always dissatisfied and wants to make more films.

Guillaume Calop started his career at the Annecy Animation Festival where his passion for cinema and for film festivals grew. He then moved to Los Angeles to participate in the launch of the web portal Animation World Network (awn.com). Back in France, he then worked for seven years at the internet branch of CANAL+ group. In 2004, Guillaume decided to launch a personal project and sat up a DVD publishing company called Chalet Pointu, specialised in animation, short films, documentaries and other rarities, opened a small DVD shop in Paris and on the web that became one of the best addresses for “rare and quality films on DVD”. In 2009, together with his partner Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, they imagined a film festival in the mountains where they grew up, the ski resort of Les Arcs. In only a few years, Les Arcs Film Festival became a major marketplace and event for European cinema. Beyond cinema, Les Arcs Film Festival is a place where the team likes to explore societal subjects such as the place of women in the field of cinema, ecology, Europe. Guillaume is also the co-founder of Le Village, a company developing professional platforms for film festivals (FestiCiné) and film projects (Coprocity) and the co-founder of Le Lab Femmes de Cinéma, a think tank aiming to analyse, study, and develop ideas for a better consideration of women in the cinema industry. Last but not least, he is at the origin of the Green Charter for Film Festivals.

Agni Scott (née Tsangaridou) is an international stage and screen actress born in Cyprus. Her breakthrough role came as Aysel in the groundbreaking HBO drama The Hamburg Cell, the first film about the 9/11 hijackers. Her work in cinema includes the female lead in OPA! (with Matthew Modine) and in the Greek language film Akamas. She can currently be seen on Netflix in Persuasion with Dakota Johnson, as Queen Stateira in the acclaimed series Alexander – The making of a God, and starring opposite Harry Connick Jr in Stelana Kliris’ Find Me Falling – the most commercially successful Cypriot film in history. Her next film, Words of War, produced by Sean Penn, opens in America on 2nd of May.

*The Festival’s full programme is available on cyprusfilmdays.com.

Information:

• €5 per screening | €30 festival pass (for all screenings).
• Free for students upon display of student card.
• Free for children (Children and Youth Section).
• Free for holders of Disability Card.
• All films, aside the Children and Youth Section, are suitable for 18+.
• All films will be screened in their original language with Greek and English subtitles. Films of the Cypriot Films Competition Section will also be screened with Turkish subtitles.

For more information:

Rialto Theatre

77 77 77 45

www.cyprusfilmdays.com

Facebook & Instagram: Cyprus Film Days International Festival

For the press release in Turkish, click here.

(EK/GS/AS)