Theater owners in Greece are reluctant to book Greek films, and filmmakers are expressing concern about how difficult it has become for their work to be seen. While some Greek films manage to get bookings and a few even break box office records, most must settle for short runs or no run at all.
Writer, director, and actor Vasilis Christofilakis is among those most vocal in confronting the distribution problem, warning that it will eventually lead to the demise of Greek cinema as we know it. His latest film, Guest Star, was a hit at the New York Greek Film Expo 2024 and won the Audience Award at the Atlanta Greek Film Expo, yet in Greece it sat on a shelf for over a year waiting for distribution. When it finally found its way onto the big screen, its short run was in sharp contrast to the waiting period.
We asked three accomplished Greek directors to comment on the situation: Maria Douza (Listen); Periklis Choursoglou, (The Promotion); and Dimitris Katsimiris, (Dignity). All three are mainstream films that were successful in US Greek film festival screenings, but all three had limited distribution in Greece. Below is an edited transcript of their comments.
Maria Douza: Since the pandemic, audiences have largely stopped going to the cinema and prefer to watch films on platforms they can access from home. In Greece, the situation is dire. In the last three years, in almost all cities and towns, cinemas have closed, and many cities are left without a single theater. Theater owners struggle to keep their business alive and don’t have the luxury to take risks with films that don’t sell tickets.
Dimitris Katsimiris: There are a few exceptions, but generally Greeks are not going to Greek films. Audiences have turned their backs on most Greek films and so have theater owners.
Periklis Choursoglou: There is the mistaken notion that Greek films don’t measure up. It goes back to years ago when there were Greek ‘art’ films, disparagingly referred to as ‘koultougiarika,’ that were hard to understand and kept audiences at a distance.
DK: Filmmakers are part of the problem, at least those who have failed to communicate with their audience, but so are the critics, the theater owners, and the media. The entire system is not supportive of Greek films.
MD: Listen has been acquired by a British sales company. It has been sold to Latin America where it is being dubbed in Spanish and Portuguese for both theatrical and platform release. It continues to travel to festivals worldwide. In Greece, it was shown in a few cinemas in Athens and Thessaloniki and a few days here and there in the Greek periphery.
PC: The distribution problem in Greece is quite serious. It saddens me. We work hard to make films that connect with the audience. When that becomes difficult, we feel as if our effort, our work, and our talent all go to waste. My film, The Promotion, received limited distribution in Greece. At the Expo in New York it won the Audience Award, and at screenings everywhere people tell me how deeply moved they were by the film. I can’t help but wonder why theater owners—at least, those who return my calls—tell me the film has little audience appeal. Something is terribly wrong.
MD: The problem is not so much the quality of the films as it is the lack of effective promotion and marketing. This is why theaters won’t show them. Most Greek films have zero promotion budget, which means it is impossible to make them known to the wide public who every week have a choice of five to seven new releases, some of which are fiercely promoted. I hear from theater owners and distributors that even if a film has received good reviews and awards, it is doomed at the box office if there is no big marketing campaign. Unless Greek films find a way to be marketed, they will basically have no theater distribution.
PC: The ratio of promotion expenses to production costs for my film was 1:100. For most European films the ratio is 1:2. A strong, heavily-promoted film will sell tickets. Those with no promotion, those that fare less well at the box office, are not necessarily films of lesser quality. Maybe it would help if there were designated theaters that show only Greek films.
MD: Promotion is absolutely necessary, but we must also try to make films that address international audiences both in terms of content and style. We must tell stories that transcend ethnic and cultural boundaries as well as the boundaries between art house and commercial cinema. Personally, I dislike the distinction as I believe that well-told stories are universal and appeal to all audiences. Audiences today are film educated and smart. To draw them to our films we must compete against the best of international production. We don’t have a choice but to become better.
DK: We need to make films with strong scripts that connect with audiences, and we need to market them. When one enjoys a Greek film, it becomes likely that one will want to see another Greek film.

The 2023 Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s retrospective of the films of Takis Kanellopoulos (1933-1990) has spurred a re-evaluation of the idiosyncratic auteur’s work while introducing him to a new generation of film enthusiasts.
Revered in his native Thessaloniki but little-known elsewhere, Kanellopoulos is considered a pioneer in the independent Greek cinema movement, showing young directors that it was possible to make films outside of the studio system of that time. He competed for the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1963 with the anti-war story Glory Sky (Ouranos), his first feature film, but none of his ten films was commercially successful.
The renewed interest in Kanellopoulos has brought unexpected attention to New York resident Maria Psomiades (nee Perdiki). A founding member of the Hellenic Film Society board of directors and currently a consultant to the New York Greek Film Expo, Psomiades was the unlikely star of Kanellopoulos’s next-to-last film, in 1978, Romantic Note (Ρομαντικό Σημείωμα).  
She had just finished high school when one afternoon Kanellopoulos approached her in the classy but now defunct Floca Cafe in downtown Thessaloniki and told her that he wanted her to star in his next film. “I had met him once before and knew who he was, but still I was taken aback. I told him that I was not an actress, but he said that was one of the reasons he wanted me to be in the film.”
Romantic Note is a story of lost youth, of four friends who fall in love with the same young woman, the enigmatic Adrianna, who vanishes from their lives as unexpectedly as she appeared, leaving them to struggle for survival in a world that dismisses romantic sensitivity.
“It is his most personal, introspective film, with beautiful cinematography,” says Psomiades. “But the timing of its release was wrong. The junta had fallen and this was a lyrical film trying to find an audience in a politically-charged time (μεταπολίτευση). The audience booed it at its opening at the 19th Thessaloniki Film Festival, and bad reviews followed. I was shocked by the reaction.”
Undeterred, Kanellopoulos asked her to star in his next film, but she turned him down. “I was afraid that film would also be badly received. I was so young at the time. I didn’t understand his importance as a filmmaker. I still wonder what if I had accepted the second offer.”
Director Marios Papageorgiou is currently working on a documentary about Kanellopoulos. A few months ago he interviewed Psomiades for his film. “It was an opportunity for me to relive the experience. Kanellopoulos worked with me nearly every day for several months, preparing for the filming. He was always respectful and supportive.”
Psomiades says that to this day she doesn’t know why she was chosen for the role she played, but Kanellopoulos enthusiasts see her as the strikingly beautiful young woman who was the director’s muse, for however short a time.