PRESS RELEASE

Ierapetra, Crete, August 10^th 2020

The 7^th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards - the 5star cultural institution that has put the southernmost city of Europe on the map of the greatest international festivals of the planet, as well as the new 1^st International Film Festival of Crete & Awards, closed their curtain on Saturday, August 8^th with an impressive Closing Ceremony, which was screened online through the channel of the Festivals' official website www.festivalierapetra.gr and was watched by numerous viewers from all over the world.

The Artistic Director of both Festivals Mrs. Eleni Vlassi pointed out during the Closing Ceremony the importance of the preservation of the cinematic culture at the era of COVID-19 and after all that is why the scheduled dates of the Festivals' conducting were followed exactly. Taking under consideration the security of the audience and of the people of Ierapetra, all films were screened online this year. 178 documentary and fiction films from 42 different countries were screened for 7 continuous days through the Festivals' official webpage marking a huge success as they were watched by thousands of viewers from around the globe. Characteristic of the success, was the enormous response of the online users in the voting for the Audience Awards, even from countries that did not participate with their films in the International Competition Sections.   

For one more year, the International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards - dedicated this year to the environment and the environmental education, highlighted its creative cultural conscience and its pluralistic spirit, hosting films with themes of a broad contemporary range, such as the financial crisis, racism, social-political discriminations, immigration, human rights, memory recording, climate change, as well as themes associated with all art forms, mythology, biographies and travel experiences. In parallel, the 1^st International Film Festival of Crete & Awards, the new cultural institution created by Mrs. Eleni Vlassi, gathered the best recent Greek productions of fiction films, transfusing a strong innovative imprint in the already successful course of this international institution.

Shortly before the end of the Closing Ceremony, the Artistic Director and the members of the Administrative Council moved to the Festivals' Headquarters, from where together with the technical team announced the Awards of the Juries - which again for one more year were composed by distinguished names coming from the arts, the letters, and the sciences, the Festival Awards which are granted to films honorably every year by the institution itself and the Artistic Director expressing an additional recognition to the competing creators, and the much-awaited Audience Awards. Big winners of this year's competition, the documentary film "Yiorgos of Kedros" by Giorgos and Yiannis Kolozis which received at the 7^th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards 3 Awards of the Greek Competition Section - among them the 1^st Award for Best Greek Feature Length Documentary Film and the Best Direction Award, the documentary film from Brazil "Saudade Mundao" by Theodora Paskquinelli and Angelica Lena which received 2 Awards of the International Competition Section - among them the 1^st Award for Best International Feature Length Documentary Film, and also the fiction films "Fantasy" by Alexis Kardaras which literally triumphed at the 1^st International Film Festival of Crete & Awards receiving 10 Awards and "Exile" by Vassilis Mazomenos which received 3 Awards - among them the Best Feature-Length Fiction Film Award.

Thanking with joy and deep emotion the Festivals' organizing team and the volunteers' team who worked with passion for the perfect conducting, the Artistic Director Mrs. Eleni Vlassi announced the establishment from next year of the successful online screenings in parallel with the live ones. Wishing that the global pandemic will have been overpassed, she invited all cinematic and cultural ambassadors from all over the planet to come next year, 7^th till 14^th August 2021, to the 8^th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards and the 2^nd International Film Festival of Crete & Awards, "here in the South, at the gate of the Mediterranean Sea, the crossroads of cultures and continents, to travel all together from the Sea of Ierapetra to all over the world". Because as she said characteristically, "Art is always more strong than our trials".

• Attached is the Awards list and the Juries' compositions 
  Awards 2020

The Artistic Director of the Festivals, Eleni Vlassi.

The Artistic Director of the Festivals, Eleni Vlassi, together with the Juries' members and the presenters, during the Closing Ceremony in front of the Sea of Ierapetra.