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.

— Afroditi Panagiotakou, Artistic Director, Onassis Foundation, The Upfront Initiative 2025

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.

Credits

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

Onassis Foundation

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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10 Years—Onassis Stegi at Athens Pride

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