Greece with “Correction” among the 67 Countries competing for 2008 Foreign Language Film Oscar®

0

Beverly Hills, CA — A record 67 countries, including first-time entrant Jordan, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards®, Academy President Sid Ganis announced today. Greece send the film of Thanos Anastopoulos, a movie exploring relationships between Greek people and foreign immigrants who live in their country. Here is an interview with director of correction:

[youtube]xdWMuRKNGWY[/youtube]

The 2008 Foreign Language Film submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Opium War,” Siddiq Barmak, director;

Albania, “The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider,” Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani, directors;

Algeria, “Masquerades,” Lyes Salem, director;

Argentina, “Lion’s Den,” Pablo Trapero, director;

Austria, “Revanche,” Gotz Spielmann, director;

Azerbaijan, “Fortress,” Shamil Nacafzada, director;

Bangladesh, “Aha!,” Enamul Karim Nirjhar, director;

Belgium, “Eldorado,” Bouli Lanners, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Snow,” Aida Begic, director;

Brazil, “Last Stop 174,” Bruno Barreto, director;

Bulgaria, “Zift,” Javor Gardev, director;

Canada, “The Necessities of Life,” Benoit Pilon, director;

Chile, “Tony Manero,” Pablo Larrain, director;

China, “Dream Weavers,” Jun Gu, director;

Colombia, “Dog Eat Dog,” Carlos Moreno, director;

Croatia, “No One’s Son,” Arsen Anton Ostojic, director;

Czech Republic, “The Karamazovs,” Petr Zelenka, director;

Denmark, “Worlds Apart,” Niels Arden Oplev, director;

Egypt, “The Island,” Sherif Arafa, director;

Estonia, “I Was Here,” Rene Vilbre, director;

Finland, “The Home of Dark Butterflies,” Dome Karukoski, director;

France, “The Class,” Laurent Cantet, director;

Georgia, “Mediator,” Dito Tsintsadze, director;

Germany, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” Uli Edel, director;

Greece, “Correction,” Thanos Anastopoulos, director;

Hong Kong, “Painted Skin,” Gordon Chan, director;

Hungary, “Iska’s Journey,” Csaba Bollok, director;

Iceland, “White Night Wedding,” Baltasar Kormakur, director;

India, “Taare Zameen Par,” Aamir Khan, director;

Iran, “The Song of Sparrows,” Majid Majidi, director;

Israel, “Waltz with Bashir,” Ari Folman, director;

Italy, “Gomorra,” Matteo Garrone, director;

Japan, “Departures,” Yojiro Takita, director;

Jordan, “Captain Abu Raed,” Amin Matalqa, director;

Kazakhstan, “Tulpan,” Sergey Dvortsevoy, director;

Korea, “Crossing,” Tae-kyun Kim, director;

Kyrgyzstan, “Heavens Blue,” Marie Jaoul de Poncheville, director;

Latvia, “Defenders of Riga,” Aigars Grauba, director;

Lebanon, “Under the Bombs,” Philippe Aractingi, director;

Lithuania, “Loss,” Maris Martinsons, director;

Luxembourg, “Nuits d’Arabie,” Paul Kieffer, director;

Macedonia, “I’m from Titov Veles,” Teona Strugar Mitevska, director;

Mexico, “Tear This Heart Out,” Roberto Sneider, director;

Morocco, “Goodbye Mothers,” Mohamed Ismail, director;

The Netherlands, “Dunya & Desie,” Dana Nechushtan, director;

Norway, “O’Horten,” Bent Hamer, director;

Palestine, “Salt of This Sea” Annemarie Jacir, director;

Philippines, “Ploning,” Dante Nico Garcia, director;

Poland, “Tricks,” Andrzej Jakimowski, director;

Portugal, “Our Beloved Month of August,” Miguel Gomes, director;

Romania, “The Rest Is Silence,” Nae Caranfil, director;

Russia, “Mermaid,” Anna Melikyan, director;

Serbia, “The Tour,” Goran Markovic, director;

Singapore, “My Magic,” Eric Khoo, director;

Slovakia, “Blind Loves,” Juraj Lehotsky, director;

Slovenia, “Rooster’s Breakfast,” Marko Nabersnik, director;

South Africa, “Jerusalema,” Ralph Ziman, director;

Spain, “The Blind Sunflowers,” Jose Luis Cuerda, director;

Sweden, “Everlasting Moments,” Jan Troell, director;

Switzerland, “The Friend,” Micha Lewinsky, director;

Taiwan, “Cape No. 7,” Te-Sheng Wei, director;

Thailand, “Love of Siam,” Chookiat Sakveerakul, director;

Turkey, “3 Monkeys,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;

Ukraine, “Illusion of Fear,” Aleksandr Kiriyenko, director;

United Kingdom, “Hope Eternal,” Karl Francis, director;

Uruguay, “Kill Them All,” Esteban Schroeder, director;

Venezuela, “The Color of Fame,” Alejandro Bellame Palacios, director.

Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Police investigates claims for rape against Theo Theophanous

0

A Greek Australian woman who currently resides in Messinia Greece had made claims that the well known Greek-Australian state Politician, Theo Theophanous, had raped her after accompanying him to his Parliament House office in September 1998 after a late-night. Police are investigating the claims by the woman in her 40s whose identity is not revealed. Mr Theophanous has accused the woman, whose claims against him were published at length in The Age newspaper, of paving the way for a payout through the courts. Police are facing mounting pressure to interview Mr Theophanous as soon as possible and finalise their 18-month investigation into the incident. After the claims Mr. Theophanous resigned from his position as a state assemblyman until the investigation is over.

Now the question is will he get back to politics or is his career over even if the investigators conclude that there is no evidence for the claims made by the Greek 40year old woman.

Mr Theophanous, who has denied any wrongdoing from the beginning, made no comment yesterday but his supporters believe he cannot be dumped if he is not charged — and that he will be exonerated.

Antholis becomes President, HBO Miniseries

0

Colin Callender announced yesterday that he has decided to leave his post as president of HBO Films.  Callender, who first joined HBO in 1987 after establishing himself as one of Britain’s leading film and television producers, plans to launch a new entertainment and content company, the details of which will be announced in 2009.

Upon Callender’s departure Greek American producer, Kary Antholis, will become president, HBO Miniseries and Len Amato will become president, HBO Films, both reporting to Michael Lombardo, president, Programming Group and West Coast Operations.

Kary Antholis has been senior vice president, HBO Films and Miniseries, since November 2004 and overseen the development and production of the HBO Films’ WIT and THE GATHERING STORM, as well as JOHN ADAMS, ANGELS IN AMERICA, GENERATION KILL and the upcoming THE PACIFIC.

List with the highest rated Congressmen from AHEPA released

0

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA), a leading association for the nation’s three million American citizens of Greek heritage, and Philhellenes, has released its 2008 Congressional Scorecard for the 110th Congress on issues of importance to the American Hellenic community, announced National President Ike Gulas.

Olympia Snowe (R), Barbara Mikulski (D), Robert Menendez(D), Tim Johnson (D) and Barrack Obama (D) are some of the top rated senators by AHEPA.

“This November 4, when all seats for the House of Representatives are up for election and approximately one-third of Senate seats are too, presents an opportunity for us to educate and inform the American Hellenic community on the level of commitment members of Congress have toward issues that are significant to the community,” said Gulas.

“Nothing is as important as people voting, and an educated voter is the best kind,” added U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-14-NY), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues. “AHEPA’s scorecard is a vital tool for voters to use. This scorecard provides a clear, straightforward record of where the candidates stand on issues that are important to Greek-Americans.”

Scorecard Available for Download

According to Gulas, through AHEPA’s grass roots network, Greek-Americans have used the scorecard to bring the issues to the attention of their representatives.

The congressional scorecard is part of AHEPA’s larger voter registration and education campaign aimed at mobilizing the American Hellenic community.

“Because the success of government depends on an engaged and educated citizenry, we are proud to provide the community with these helpful tools to become involved and to make informed decisions,” said Gulas.

“It was a pleasure to meet with Senator Biden, and we were appreciative of the opportunity given his busy schedule,” said Gulas. “We briefly touched on the foreign policy issues that are so important to our community. These are issues with which the senator has a firm understanding and he is supportive.”

Senator Biden was the 2002 recipient of AHEPA’s Pericles Award for excellence in public service.

Electra to perform at The Viper Room

0

The Greek-American singer songwriter and her band have been performing all around Los Angeles but their next live perfomance is at the world famous Viper Room on Sunset on november 1st (9.30 pm).

Electra grew up in Athens, Greece and attended a Musical High School where she started to develop professionally her musical skills in theory, singing, and piano. During her stay in Greece she performed with all the famous performers in the music industry. Her performances gave her the chance to open her mind in different styles of music, especially Greek. Once she graduated, she decided to come back to Los Angeles, and continue her studies. Having been accepted through auditions in all three universities Cal Arts, UCLA, and California State University of Northridge (CSUN), she decided to attend CSUN. During her time in CSUN Electra was awarded with a vocal scholarship and with the society of singers award. She performed numerous times as solo and in opera productions. She received her Bachelors degree in Music-vocal performance in spring 2007. Electra has also dedicated lots of her time in acting. She studied acting in Los Angeles and in Greece and has also been trained in improv with director Tim Simek. Today, besides her music she is a voices actress, doing the voices of Nazli, Zenep, and pinky the fly, in the televised cartoon series “Green Valley”. Electra has just currently finished her demo consisted of four rock/pop songs, one of which “Blame” is an original by her piano player Kosta Lois.

The Viper Room is a nightclub located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. The club is well known for having been the site where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993. Even following Phoenix’s death, the club remained a hang-out for Hollywood’s hottest young actors. Regulars included Jennifer Aniston and Sean Penn. Adding to that group, Adam Duritz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, hid out as a Viper Room bartender in late 1994 – early 1995 to escape his newfound fame.

The 2008 Homeless World Cup in Melbourne

0

The 2008 tournament will be held in Melbourne, Australia, December 1st to 7th, at two parks: Federation Square and Birrarung Marr. It will have a new record of participating projects. National Teams from 56 nations will gather in Melbourne, amongst them for the first time 8 all female teams competing in the Women’s Cup. Two Greek Australians will participate in the tournament but in different teams. George Chalkias is the coach of the Australian team and Christos Alefantes is the creator and one of the player for the Greek Homeless team.

The Homeless World Cup is an international football (soccer) tournament, where teams made up entirely of homeless people compete. The event is held annually and, as of 2008, is in its sixth year.

The tournament was created at the end of the 2001 International Network of Street Papers Conference in Cape Town that Mel Young, Co-founder The Big Issue Scotland, and Harald Schmied, editor of Megaphon, a street paper in Austria, came up with the idea for the Homeless World Cup. They decided to make it happen and 18 months later the first tournament took place in Graz, Austria. It was such a success that they decided to do more.

Player Eligibility

Players must:

  • Be male or female and at least 16 years of age at the time of the tournament
  • Have been homeless at some point after the previous year’s World Cup OR
  • Make their main living income as a streetpaper vendor OR
  • Be asylum seekers (who have neither positive asylum status nor working permit)

Anyone can participate regardless of his or her ability.

Participants

A maximum of 4 players per team on the court:

  • 3 outfield players,
  • 1 goalkeeper,
  • Plus 4 substitution players (rolling substitution allowed)

Tournament details

  • The winning team gets 3 points. The losing team zero. If a match ends in a draw, it is decided by sudden-death penalty shootout.

In this case the winning team gets three points and the losing team gets one point.

  • Games are 14 minutes long.

sources: Wikipedia and Neos Kosmos

Greece is No1 destination for Australians

0

Flight Centre listed Greece at number one in its annual Top 10 Where To Go list, thanks to the country’s “simple pleasures”.

The list is based on the company’s top selling destination data, showing the countries that have consistently gained popularity over the past 12 months and will be the places to be seen in 2009.

“Greece offers … an affordable holiday, delicious food at reasonable prices, cheap sailing, local wine, beautiful beaches, sunshine, quaint villages … and little islands full of scenic surprises,” Flight Centre says.

Other top destination countries include the tiny nation of Brune, Croatia and Vietnam.

Greek populations frustrated by the situation in Greek Consulate of Melbourne

0

According to an article of Neos kosmos, the Greek leading newspaper of Australia the Greek Consulate in Melbourne cannot serve the Greek population of the area. The waiting time for phone calls and work that remains ufinished are a common reality. George Zois, the Greek ambassador in Australia, commented that ” sometimes even I had to wait in order to talk to somebody on the phone”. He went further to say that he hopes that Athens will send more people to help out but he does not think that thiss will happened soon.

“The Kingdom of Paramithi” by the Wiggles

0

Australia’s richest entertainers The Wiggles have produced a TV show that won’t require them to wear a colored skivvy. For the first time, they have put together a project outside their famous children’s singing group and plan to market it around the world.

The brainchild of Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and his brother Paul, who is also the group’s producer and director, The Kingdom of Paramithi (Greek for fairytale) is a children’s program based on telling the story of well-known nursery rhymes. Now none of them is Greek or of Greek descent. So how did they learn the word paramithi and why? I seems that the answer is Michaela Patisteas. In spite of being named as “Bachelor of the Year” in Cleo Magazine, Field married Michaela Patisteas, of Greek descent in 2003.

With 30 half-hour episodes already finished, the Fields are planning to present their new show at the prestigious MIPCON conference in France, the world market for TV sales, next week. The show will debut in Australia on Channel 9 on November 10.

source: news.com.au