Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi’s debut feature Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep won the Golden Athena award for best film at the Athens International Film Festival-Opening Nights, which ran from September 30 to October 11.
The film, which world premiered in Cannes’ Certain Regard, centres on a Palestinian family forced to flee because of a blood feud with another family from a different tribe in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley.
Ama Films has picked up Greek rights.
Coming-of-age tale La Gradiva, by France’s Marina Atlan, won the festival’s best director award. Atlan’s feature debut previously won the grand prix in Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Spentzos Film will release the title in Greece.
Spentzos will also release Ben’imana, which won the Athens’ best screenplay award for Delphine Agut and Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo, who also directed the feature on the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The film received the Camera d’Or and the Fipresci awards at Cannes.
Chilean director Juan Pablo Sallato’s The Red Hangar received the festival’s audience award. Distributor Weird Wave picked up Greek rights.
In the documentary competition, Iranian actress-turned-director Pegah Ahangarani’s Rehearsals For A Revolution won the Golden Athena award for best film. Cinobo has distribution rights in Greece.
Irish director Alexander Murphy’s Tin Castle and NAZAn by Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham received special mentions. The latter was acquired for Greece by Film Trade-Tanweer.
In the festival’s Greek competition, Vangelis Panagiotakopoulos and Thanasis Fousekis’ Aftoklitos Fterotos received the Golden Athena prize for best film as well as the best screenplay trophy and best actor award for Yorgos Boufidis.
Vicky Anastasiadou’s Wheel To Live was awarded the Silver Athena special jury award, while the Onassis Foundation award went to Petros Kalfamanolis for Hole, the Ballad of Boulder Valley.
In contrast to last year, when the festival faced collapse due to the last-minute cancellation of a regular subsidy from the culture ministry, the 2026 event returned stronger thanks to support from Greek film agency Ekkomed and vital sponsorship from electricity company DEI.
This enabled Athens to reintroduce a number of side sections, including an eight-film Yorgos Lanthimos focus and a retrospective of the work of Possible Love director Lee Chang-dong.
There were also two new industry programmes: the Athens Industry Days and the Athens Film Industry Lab: focus forward.
Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine bookended the festival.
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