Ron Gilbert

Los Angeles Greek Festival ends on High Note

Orpheus’s spirit was abound at the  Awards Ceremony  presentation at the  4th annual Los Angeles Greek Film festivalwith the fabulous , Alexia Vassiliou enchanting us with lyrics from  classic films such as ,” Boy on a Dolphin”, “Never on Sunday”, “Phaedra”, andothers with film stars Melina Mercouri,Alan Ladd and Anthony Perkins.

The beautiful Patricia Kara, of the TVshow Deal or No Deal hosted the award ceremony which included Academy Awardwinners Alexander Payne and George Tsakiris, and other well known industrynames such as Alexis Georgoulis, Penelope Spheris, Costas Mandylor, DemetriMartin, Jim Gianopoulos, and John Aniston.

The brilliant director/cinematographer,Phedon Papamichael was honored with the career achievement award presented tohim by his good friend, Alexander Payne. who shared anecdotes about him.Phaedon was very emotional when he recalled his start in the film business withhis mentor John Cassavetes. He also mentioned that members with crew had goneon to win academy awards so he is a good luck charm., His  feature film “Arcadia Lost” as a director/cinematographer screened at the festival andhis latest film as a cinematographer .”Knight and Day” with super star, TomCruise and Cameron Diaz opens this week.

Renos Haralambidis’s film “Four Black Suits” won our hearts withhis comedic flair and also the audience award which for him, he said it waslike winning an Oscar on his first trip to Hollywood

Director, Flippos Tsitos arrived just intime by plane from Greece, to pick up his award for best feature“Plato’s Academy” which screened following the presentations. His film is aboutGreek man who suddenly discovers that his mother actually came from Albania

“”Colossi of Love. the delightful  film about the kamakis won best documentaryand “Plunder From A Bleeding Land”won best short film.

The gala was followed by deliciousGreek food and fine wines from Athenee importers