Greek Hollywood looks to make gains as production reaches record levels

It was sunny skies over the Thessaloniki Film Festival this week, with unseasonably high temperatures prompting many visitors to slather on sunscreen while navigating between film premieres and industry events at Greece’s longest-running film festival.

The local industry is also enjoying its moment in the sun, with the Mediterranean country seeing a post-pandemic surge in production, boosted by foreign titles such as Rian Johnson’s Netflix blockbuster “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and thriller “Tin Soldier.” Expend4bles, starring Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro, Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone, is the latest installment in the action film series, which was filmed in Thessaloniki.

Last year, production in Greece reached record highs, with 132 projects supported through the country’s cash back scheme, which covers up to 40% of eligible expenditures and can be combined with a separate 30% tax relief scheme. This year, director Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie, and Amazon Studios’ “Killer Heat,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Richard Madden, are among the productions bringing some star power to the country.

Speaking in Thessaloniki this week, Leonidas Christopoulos, the newly appointed head of EKOME – the government body charged with administering the cash discount – boasted that nearly €100 million ($107 million) had been distributed through the incentive scheme since its launch in 2018, and Most of that in the last two years.

But Greek producers have sounded the alarm over what they see as the industry’s increasing dependence on foreign production, which has reaped nearly two-thirds of those government revenues, while the Hellenic Film Centre, which plays a crucial role in supporting the development of local film and television productions, continues to struggle. Severe lack of funding.

“Anything that happens has to happen to the local industry,” said Konstantinos Kontoufrakis, co-founder of the Athens-based production and sales company Heretic (“Triangle of Sadness,” “Inside”). He added: “There is no point in designing an incentive, and there is no point in spending hundreds of millions of euros, unless this returns to local talent and (allows) local talent to flourish further.”

Although Greece is currently enjoying its moment in the spotlight as foreign producers rally, drawn by the country’s sunny locations and competitive discount schemes, Kontoufrakis warned the rally could be a “bubble” that “is bound to burst”.

“We know very well that the studios will move to another country tomorrow. It happened (elsewhere). “We are not reinventing the wheel. “We are not rewriting history.”

However, Greek filmmakers continue to make waves internationally, such as Sofia Exarchou, whose second film, Animal, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where lead actor Dimitra Flagopoulou won Best Acting Performance. Riding on the huge success of his debut film “Apples” at its Venice premiere, director Christos Nikou has made the leap across the Atlantic with his first English-language feature, “Fingernails,” an Apple TV+ sci-fi romance featuring an ensemble cast Led by Jesse Buckley, Riz Ahmed, and Jeremy Allen White.

Greek drama series have also begun to reach the global market, with Beta Film recently acquiring the international sales rights to the Greek drama series “The Beach”, a very popular series of public broadcaster ERT. Last week in Thessaloniki, Season 5 acquired global distribution rights to the Greek teen drama The Milky Way, written and directed by Palme d’Or-winning short film Vassilis Kikatos. It was the first Greek series ever to compete in Series Mania, with the edgy drama drawing comparisons to HBO’s “Euphoria.”

For producers at the Thessaloniki Festival this week, these positive trends are the biggest reason why the government and industry must ensure they are aligned in continuing to grow what Neda Film’s Amanda Leifano calls “Greek Hollywood.”

“I think we can all agree that the Greek industry is booming,” said Leifano, who last year completed the horror mystery Buzzheart from veteran director Denis Iliadis (The Last House on the Left). “This is an idyllic picture of what is happening. Of course, as producers, we are very happy, but we also need to highlight how to improve, how not to repeat the mistakes made by other discounters.

The Thessaloniki Film Festival takes place from November 2 to 12.