The Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival (AAGFF), the flagship event of the Greek Film Archive, returns for its 14th edition from 3 to 17 December 2025, celebrating bold, innovative voices in world cinema.

The Greek Film Archive (Greek Cinematheque) is an internationally recognized non-profit cultural organization dedicated to the research, collection, preservation, and promotion of Greek and world cinematographic heritage. Since 1983, the Greek Film Archive has been a regular member of the International Association of Film Archives (FIAF) and a founding member of the European Association of Film Archives (ACE). We are also part of the Europa Cinemas Network.

As Greece’s only festival dedicated exclusively to avant-garde, experimental, and hybrid cinema, AAGFF champions visionary works that boldly defy convention, push the limits of narrative form and expand the very language and possibilities of the moving image.

What makes AAGFF truly unique is its carefully curated and intimate approach. Rather than a large-scale industry event, the festival fosters a warm and vibrant atmosphere, where filmmakers, artists, and cinephiles gather to connect meaningfully, both on and off screen.

The festival has hosted in-person retrospectives of major figures in contemporary cinema, including Radu Jude, Angela Schanelec, Pedro Costa, Leos Carax, Harun Farocki, Philippe Grandrieux, among others.

Notable past jurors include:
Cecilia Barrionuevo, former Artistic Director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and curator at Film at Lincoln Center (NYC)

Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive

Jacqui Davies, London-based producer and curator, founder of Primitive Film

Eva Stefani, acclaimed Greek filmmaker
and other distinguished figures in international film curation, production, and academia.

Each edition of AAGFF showcases Greek premieres of some of the world’s most daring and important new films. Last year’s lineup included:

Sleep #2 – Radu Jude
Eight Postcards from Utopia (Opt ilustrate din lumea ideală) – Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz
A Fidai Film – Kamal Aljafari
A queda do céu (The Falling Sky) – Eryk Rocha, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
bluish – Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky
Direct Action – Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell
Fogo do Vento (Fire of Wind) – Marta Mateus
Monólogo colectivo (Collective Monologue) – Jessica Sarah Rinland
Pepe – Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias
The Suit – Heinz Emigholz
tú me abrasas (You Burn Me) – Matías Piñeiro
Viet and Nam – Trương Minh Quý
Grand Tour – Miguel Gomes (with cinematographer Rui Poças)
C’est pas moi – Leos Carax
Phantosmia – Lav Diaz
Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya – Malena Szlam
Machines Boys – Karimah Ashadu
Materia vibrante – Pablo Marín
Memories of an Unborn Sun – Marcel Mrejen
Quebrante – Janaina Wagner
Man Number 4 – Miranda Pennell
Notes of a Crocodile – Daphne Xu
The Diary of a Sky – Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Razeh-del – Maryam Tafakory
Slow Shift – Shambhavi Kaul
…and many more.

Building on the success of last year's collaboration, AAGFF joins forces with ARTWORKS for the second time—a nonprofit organization committed to supporting and amplifying the voices of contemporary artists and curators within and outside Greece—to once again present “Reframing Images”, a bold competition section dedicated to emerging voices from around the globe who experiment with cinematic form, disrupt traditional storytelling and explore new cinematic languages. ΑRTWORKS was founded in 2017 with a founding grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), which to date remains a lead donor, actively supporting the entire scope of its activities.

Submission/Eligibility Requirements:
- A Greek premiere is required
- Films must have been completed within twelve (12) months prior to December 2025

Awards & Prizes

"Reframing Images" Competition
ARTWORKS Best Film Award with the support of Katherine Embiricos, an executive producer of numerous internationally acclaimed documentaries, recognizing fresh, boundary-pushing approaches to filmmaking.
Prize: €5,000

Submission/Eligibility Requirements:
- A Greek premiere is required
- Films must have been completed within twelve (12) months prior to December 2025

Rules & Terms

Article 1: ORGANISING BODY
The present Regulation for the Open Call for Submissions of the 14th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival was drafted by the Festival’s programme team and approved by Maria Komninos, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of the Greek Film Archive, who also determined the dates of the Festival.

Article 2: THE 14TH ATHENS AVANT-GARDE FILM FESTIVAL
The 14th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival will take place from 3 to 17 December 2025 at the Greek Film Archive (48 Iera Odos Street, PC 104 35, Athens). Part of the Festival’s programme will also be available online on a secure audiovisual media platform for a limited number of screenings, geographically blocked/restricted to the Greek territory, at https://online.tainiothiki.gr. For online screenings, the Festival will coordinate each film’s participation in consultation with its filmmakers or rights holders.

Article 3: REFRAMING IMAGES COMPETITION SECTION
As part of one of the competition sections of the 14th AAGFF, called "Reframing Images", there will be screenings of first or second feature films, as well as medium-length and short films (without limitation on 1st or 2nd film) by filmmakers from around the world.
For this competition section, the Greek Film Archive collaborates for the second time with ARTWORKS, which, with the support of Katherine Embiricos, an executive producer of numerous internationally acclaimed documentaries, recognizing fresh, boundary-pushing approaches to filmmaking, will grant the ARTWORKS Best Film Award. This award, a cash prize of €5,000, will be presented to the director of the winning film by the Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival.

The three-member jury that will select the filmmaker to be awarded will be made up of people who have been awarded in the past by ARTWORKS in the framework of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artists Support Programme, precisely in order to strengthen the contact of the new generation of creators/artists with the Greek Film Archive and the Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival. The composition of the committee will be decided by the festival's organisation.

Films participating in this competition section through the present Open Call will be determined entirely by the Festival organisers.

Up to five Greek films will participate in the competitive section Reframing Images. These may include Greek productions, co-productions, or films by Greek directors, regardless of their country of residence.

Article 4: FILM SUBMISSION AND ELIGIBILITY
Films meeting the following criteria are eligible for the "Reframing Images" competition section:

Avant-garde, innovative, experimental fiction, documentary, or hybrid films that experiment with new narrative forms;

First or second feature films, as well as medium-length and short films (without limitation on 1st or 2nd film) by the director;

The film must have been completed within twelve (12) months prior to December 2025, unless otherwise agreed;

The film must not have been publicly released or screened in Greece (in cinemas, on television, or online)—a Greek premiere is required;

An online entry form must be submitted, including the names of all principal contributors, a short synopsis, technical details, and the director’s biography and filmography;

Films must be submitted via the FilmFreeway platform on the event’s respective page, with the appropriate entry fee paid: €25 for feature films (over 60 minutes) and €20 for short and medium-length films (under 60 minutes);

Films must be available as password-protected screeners with active links accessible until 17 December 2025;

All films must be submitted in their original language with English subtitles (unless the original language is Greek). Films without English subtitles will not be considered;

Each director may submit only one film to the competition;

The entry fee includes taxes and must be paid by 8 August 2025. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. Entry fees are non-refundable if the submission is withdrawn or the film is not selected;

Filmmakers and rights holders of selected films agree not to screen or broadcast the films in Greece until after the Festival ends;

Rights holders of films premiering at the Festival must include the Festival laurel at the beginning of the film to indicate their participation in the 2025 event whenever screened or broadcast.

Submission of a film to the competition implies acceptance of these regulations.

Article 5: FILM SELECTION
Films participating in the "Reframing Images" competition will be selected by the Festival organisers based on artistic criteria aligned with the Festival’s aesthetics and themes.

Submission does not guarantee selection. The Organising Body and Festival bear no responsibility toward filmmakers for non-selection.

Due to the volume of submissions, the Organising Body and Festival are not obliged to provide reasons for non-selection.

Submission entails the right of the Festival to use the film’s information and materials (photos, posters, selected scenes, synopses, etc.) for promotional purposes, including digital and printed catalogues, website and social media posts, press releases, and other promotion. Synopses and promotional texts may be edited by the Festival organisers.

Selected filmmakers will be notified via the contact information provided on the entry form. The Festival may request additional information or screening files (e.g., ProRes/DCP, stills). It is the filmmaker’s responsibility to inform producers and relevant parties of the selection.

Failure to respond within 14 days of notification will result in loss of participation rights, and the Festival will select another film.

Once selected and included in the announced programme, the filmmaker or rights holder may not withdraw the film.

Article 6: JURY
The film among those participating in the competition which will win the ARTWORKS Best Film Award, and a cash prize of €5,000, will be selected by a three-member Jury which shall be composed as decided by the Festival’s organisers.

The three-member jury that will select the filmmaker to be awarded will be made up of people who have been awarded in the past by ARTWORKS in the framework of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artists Support Programme.

The Jury may additionally give one or two special mentions for either Artistic or Technical Achievement.