Stay Awake: A campaign by Onassis Stegi for Athens Pride 2025
Don’t close your eyes to homophobia, transphobia, and intolerance. Even if it doesn’t affect you, it nevertheless does.
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Every year, in Greece and abroad, homophobic and transphobic attacks increase. According to the 2023 annual report of the Racist Violence Recording Network, such incidents doubled compared to the previous year. Now, more than ever, each and every one of us must take a stand against all forms of abusive behavior. We should not look away. We must stay informed, take action, and be active citizens. Because even if we think it doesn’t affect us, it does.
What’s at stake is who I want to be, as a person, and what kind of society we want to have, what kind of society we want to live in. This moral compass shapes everyday life.
Onassis Stegi returns to Athens Pride 2025, celebrating its 20th anniversary, with a campaign aimed at increasing visibility. It is a call for all of us to remain vigilant, recognizing that this awareness is our greatest strength. In this campaign, we witness three instances of abuse against the LGBTQI+ community in different environments: within the family, at school, and in public space. As the victims are attacked, those around them appear to be in a state of slumber, asleep and unresponsive to what is happening. But at some point, they wake up. They turn their gaze to the perpetrator—a gaze filled with power and even greater impact—bringing with it the winds of change. And so the violence stops. Because if we stay awake, we can reverse the course of history.
An Onassis Stegi production
Project Manager: Nikos Athanasopoulos
Production Company: Kalibu Productions
Producer & Production Manager: Polymnia Papadopoulou Sardeli
Director: Alki Papastathopoulos
Screenplay: Elizampetta Ilia Georgiadou
Campaign Manager: Daniel Vergiadis
Head of Creative: Christos Sarris
Audiovisual Producer: Elena Choremi
Audiovisual Line Producer: Angeliki Avgeri
Director of Photography: Areti Papaioannou
1st Assistant Director: Zabela Chaviara
2nd Assistant Director: Faidra Vokali
Casting Director: Artemisia Reppa
Location Manager: Vasilis Ziogkas
Location Scouter: Kostis Evgenitakis
Production Coordinator: Yete Kirimi
1st Camera Assistant: Rafail Tsakalos
2nd Camera Assistant: Manolis Dapontes
Camera Trainee: Artemios Geromitsos
Gaffer: Nektarios Voutsinas
Movement Supervisor: Ion Taliouridis
Best Boy: Nikos Magdalinos
Costume Designer: Marli Aleiferi
Costume Designer Assistant: Elina Tsoutsia
Production Designer: Υasmina Kourounis
Make-up: Niki Ovakoglou
Hair: Andriani Eva Mattheou
Production Assistant: Nikos Triantafillidis
Production Assistant: Nikol Pantsidou
BTS: Stergios Dinopoulos
Editor: Alki Papastathopoulos
Εditor Assistant: Sofia Sfiri
Color Grading: Maria Tzortzatou
Special thanks to PAN PAN, Lamprini Gkolia, and MINOS EMI SA for the kind permission to use the song “To Niosimo”
ΤΟ ΝΙΟSIMO
PAN PAN feat. LAMPRINI GKOLIA
Written by Pan Pan, Lamprini Gkolia
(P) 2025 Floriko Party, under exclusive distribution to MINOS EMI SA
Still Photographer: Nikos Kokkas
Cast
House: Christina Theodosiou, Foteini Papachristopoulou, Simeon Tsakiris, Aggeliki Beveratou
Bus: Emmanouil Kondos, Stavros Dellamanis, Konstantinos Mitrakas, Telis Zacharakis, Katerina Daliani, Petros Nikoltsos, Theofilos Manologlou, Thanos Koniaris, Stelios Dagas, Takis Sakellariou
School: Ariadni Marinou, Giorgos Tsilivigos, Kinwhite Chris Elechi, Georgia Kypritzoglou, Sofia Sotiriou, Vasiliki Kapetanaki, Semeli Mitropoulou, Niki Verykokkou, Marios Sotiropoulos, Polydoros Lapidakis, Giorgos Foskolos
Artistic Director: Afroditi Panagiotakou
Executive Director: Dimitris Theodoropoulos
PR Executive: Alexandra Chrysanthakopoulou
Communication & Content Department
Group Communication & Content Manager: Demetres Drivas
Content Leader: Alexandros Roukoutakis
Media Officers: Vaso Vasilatou, Katerina Tamvaki
Junior Media Officer: Nefeli Tsartaklea-Kasselaki
Social Media Manager: Vasilis Bibas
Social Media: Sylvia Kouveli, Alexandra Sarantopoulou
Social Media Performance Specialist: Giorgos Athanasiou
Creative Studio: Theodoros Koveos, Constantinos Chaidalis, Thomas Tsoulias
Website Editor: Despoina Kalyvi
Stills from the campaign
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Onassis Stegi stands with the LGBTQI+ community through actions and interventions in Athens and around the world. In 2015, it made its own coming out by supporting Athens Pride for the first time. Since then, it has been #Present every year, joyfully witnessing a growing number of participants. On the occasion of Athens Pride 2018, Afroditi Panagiotakou, the Artistic Director of the Onassis Foundation, spoke with two teenagers about fundamental human rights, answering ‘tough’ questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2020, it spread the message “Athens Home For All” to every corner of the city, so that everyone could feel safe being themselves. In 2022, it declared, “It’s love that makes a family,” launching a campaign of love and inclusion in support of the fundamental rights of same-sex families in Greece, helping pave the way for the passage of the civil marriage law. This year, at Athens Pride 2025, it invites us not to look away from homophobia, transphobia, and intolerance. #StayAwake