Onassis Cinema

Supporting independent Greek cinema through the Onassis Foundation Film Awards

Since 2021, the Onassis Foundation has been present at Greece’s major film festivals with the Onassis Film Awards. From the Drama International Short Film Festival and Athens International Film Festival to the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the Foundation supports independent Greek cinema by awarding filmmakers for the development or completion of their films. Giorgos Gousis (African Grey), Andreas Gatopoulos (The Eggregores’ Theory), Alki Papastathopoulo (Honeymoon), Despoina Kourti (Numb), and Loukas Palaiokrassas (Bugboy) were the winners of the Onassis Film Awards 2024–25.

How much emotion can fit into just a few minutes? Onassis Culture consistently and actively supports emerging creators and artistic experimentation, offering space for new cinematic ideas. For the fourth year running, it issues an open call for short fiction, documentary, and animation films. Five selected projects will each receive €10,000 in funding. The first Big Short Film to be completed was MJ by Giorgos Fourtounis, which premiered at the 2024 Drama International Short Film Festival and was awarded the Silver Dionysus, while later it also received the Golden Athena Award for Best Short Film at the Athens International Film Festival. The selected films for 2025 were Amnesia (Nikos Kolioukos), Meridian (Markela Kontaratou), Highway! (Fokion Xenos), ADA (Sophia Kourou), and Final Girls (Pinelopi Mavropsaridi). The new Open Call will be announced in early 2026.

The Onassis Foundation has supported Greek cinema through important collaborations.

Hellenic Iris Awards

For ten years, Stegi has supported the awards of the Hellenic Film Academy, aiming to promote the local cinema’s most daring voices. The awards ceremony, hosted every year at Stegi, has been the top event of the year, bringing the entire film community together.

Meet the Future

Inaugurated in 2019, the “Meet the Future” section has been a collaboration with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Fifteen short film directors whose works have been screened at the biggest festivals in the world have had the opportunity to present their practice to the public within the framework of the 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Two of the participants have become Onassis Fellows and have traveled to New York and Los Angeles, where the Onassis Foundation operates, to get to know the US film community up close.

Cinemability

Since 2016, the Onassis Foundation, in collaboration with the Movement of Disabled Artists, has created conditions for access to all film screenings of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for the blind, visually impaired, deaf, and hard of hearing. Accessibility to the cinema has not been considered an ability, but a capability.

Oxbelly

Onassis Culture has supported the Oxbelly Screenwriters & Directors Lab held annually in Costa Navarino. Through workshops and talks, the Labs have given young directors the opportunity to develop scripts for their first or second feature film, with internationally acclaimed mentors such as Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), and Lucrecia Martel (La Ciénaga) by their side.

Werner Herzog, Romain Gavras, Marjane Satrapi. Bold, renowned filmmakers introduce themselves to the Athenian public through their talks at Stegi. They share their personal stories and discuss about cinema and life. Watch the talks on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel.