Symi Scenery & Screenings

As well as some photos taken from the balcony yesterday (and the bonfire at the new jetty site from a few days before – it was a controlled fire), I have some updates on films. One of the organisers of the Symi International Film Festival sent me the list of award winners and I’ve copied it below.

Before we get there, the news from ‘The 13^th‘, the film shot entirely on Symi, is that it has been entered in 74 festivals to date – it may not be entered into any more. It has been selected for ten so far, and in those it has won about 20 laurels/awards and been seen by several hundred people. More publicity for Symi there. It had been rejected by 34 so far, but there are still 30 in the pipeline. Now you know, and now the Symi International Film festival awards list:

Award for Best Feature Film              Mousse

Award for Best Short Film                  White House

Award for Best Animated Film          Cuerdas

Award for Best Greek Film                Ο Λέων της Πεντέλης (The Lion of Penteli)

Award for Best Direction                   John Hellberg – Mousse

Award for Best Actor                         Stéphane Bertola – Mousse

Award for Best Actress                      Huichi Chiu – Huidas (Escapes)

Award for Best Cinematography        White House

Award for Originality                         A Mirror

Award for Best Music                         Antonis Zacharakis – Ta gemista (Salted)

 

Highly Commended- Short Film        Zero mm

Highly Commended- Short Film        The Shoe Maker Pages

Highly Commended- Short Film        Initiation

Highly Commended- Feature Film     Life is Lovely

Highly Commended- Animated Film Shame

Highly Commended- Greek Film       ΓΕΝΕΘΛΙΑ (Birthday)

Highly Commended- Actor                Gunnar Ernblad – Mousse

Highly Commended- Actor                Roberto Gonzalez- Mousse

Highly Commended- Actress             Julia Campanelli – 116

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Ταινίας Μεγάλου Μήκους

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Ταινίας Μικρού Μήκους

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Ταινίας Κινουμένων Σχεδίων

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Ελληνικής Ταινίας

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Σκηνοθεσίας

Βραβείο Καλύτερου Αντρα Ηθοποιού

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Γυναίκας Ηθοποιού

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Φωτογρφίας

Βραβείο Πρωτοτυπου Σεναρίου

Βραβείο Καλύτερης Μουσικής

 

Ειδική Μνεία – Ταινίς Μικρού Μήκους

Ειδική Μνεία – Ταινία Μικρού Μήκους

Ειδική Μνεία – Κινουμένων Σχεδίων

Ειδική Μνεία – Ελληνική Ταινία

Ειδική Μνεία – Αντράς Ηθοποιός

Ειδική Μνεία – Γυναίκα Ηθοποιός

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A post about post

Morning! Just a quick post today. I was rather uninspired on Sunday, so didn’t get around to writing anything in advance. In fact, I had a whole day off; no work of any sort, just some online shopping and some pottering around at home. Talking of shopping…

The other day I sent a package to the UK; some old camera equipment for one of our nephews. I packaged everything up and wrapped it well, put the pieces (camera, lenses etc.) into an old camera bag and into an old water box. Found some brown paper, covered the box and wrote the addresses to and from, and then wondered how much it would cost to post. I took it to the post office where it was weighed, 4.2 kilos, and was told how much it would be to send it ‘snail mail’. €35.00 approx. And off it went. That was on the Friday morning.

It arrived in the UK, at its destination, on the Wednesday morning, which I thought was pretty good going, particularly as it wasn’t going with a courier. This is unlike a hard drive with a film on it that a friend of mine sent as an entry to the Cape Town Film Festival the other week. This was sent by post, from the UK, and the post office told him it would take three to four days as some kind of priority mail. What they didn’t say was that South Africa was having a huge problem with the post and there was a month’s worth of backlog. This meant the file had still not arrived with two days to go before the film was due to be shown. My friend got onto the post office and, somehow, the CEO of… whatever it’s called. A couple of emails later and the package was found (in the backlog, in Cape Town), and finally delivered just in time. I think the fact that he got a national South Africa newspaper interested in the story over there helped.

Anyway… Random postal thought on a Monday morning, early, so not fascinating news, but good news. The Greek/British postal service did me proud without me having to get the press on board.

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Saturday Photos

As usual for a weekend, here are a few random photos to keep you going. These are drawn from my files and were all taken this year. It’s very random today. Have a good weekend.

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Symi Light

That’s Symi Light, not Lite as in sugar-free and chemical-packed. I was trying to get some shots of the changing early morning light as seen from the house and came up with a few photos, shown here today.

I was out on the balcony at six in the morning when it was still dark and could see the stars. I’ve still not worked out how to get good night sky images, so maybe that’s a project for the winter. Later, the sun came up over the Pedi hills, as seen through the cables and poles. As the dawn continues, the light changes and casts on different places which, after sunrise, fall into their usual colour scheme and lighting pattern.

At certain times of the day, you can see things in the rocks… Did you know that if you stand on St Nicholas beach at the right time of day and year, you can see a sleeping dragon? The headland opposite, around to Agia Marina, ends with a dragon’s snout in the water. If you use your imagination, you can see a closed eye and the top of its head, all the way back to a humped body and closed wings. Honest. I have seen it, and I had not even been on the ouzo at the time.

And, if you are in Nimborio at a certain time of day (evening is best) you can see a sleeping Titan on Nimos. You can, again with some imagination, make him out from across the bay in Horio. See the image below and look for his chin, which extends just beyond the left of the frame. To the right of it you can make out a closed mouth and a nose, and one closed eye above the water; the rest of his face is under the sea, so maybe this is Poseidon having a kip. He has a parting in his hair, and he is moulded into the rocks behind him. Again, no ouzo involved, just a bit of imagination.

Anyway, that’s what I was doing yesterday morning before going to work.

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That Cold North Wind

On Monday I was reminded of a song by Chris De Burgh, ‘Lonely Sky’, and its opening lines: ‘That cold north wind they call “La Bise” is swirling round about my knees…” I’m not sure if there is a name in Greek for the cold north wind that was swirling around about not just my knees on Monday, but it’s gone now.

I was just sitting on the balcony (Wednesday) watching the Blue Star come in, and later the Dodecanese Express, and marvelled at how warm it was now that the wind had dropped. Maybe we are in for a warmer autumn that first expected. I did look back on some notes and posts from years before, and a few years ago we were playing at an outdoor gig at Mandeios -Mike, Susan and I. That night I was wearing two jumpers, a coat and a pair of gloves. (And trousers, of course.) It was freezing, and that was October 10^th. On other days around this time we were deluged, and four years ago on 11^th October, we started filming ‘The 13^th‘ as it’s now called. We only had one day of cloudy, mildly damp weather during that two-week shoot, and I don’t remember being cold.

Anyway, that’s enough about the weather. Mind you, there’s not a lot else to tell you. More and more visitors are heading off at the end of their holiday, the season is slowing down but the other day we still had five day boats and a cruise ship in the harbour, so it’s not over yet. I was chatting to some visitors the other night and they, and others I know of, have already secured their boking for next year’s trip. That’s a good idea if you want to stay in a popular place or come with a cheap package holiday company. You can also go independent, and it’s not as costly as you might think. But still, it’s a good idea now to book early. I also heard that EasyJet had put their return flights to the UK up to around the £400 mark for the coming weeks. The closer you get to leaving, the more expensive it gets, so another reason for early booking.

And talking of books, kind of, I have a couple to write. My editor for ‘Symi, Stuff and Nonsense’ is back from holiday today, and I said I’d have all the texts finished by then. I haven’t, so I must get on with it.

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