The films of the International Competition program are eligible for the following awards:
The Official Selection films are eligible for prizes awarded by Independent Juries.
The members of the International Competition Jury are: Denis Côté, filmmaker; Sara Driver, filmmaker and producer; and Konstantinos Kontovrakis, producer.
COSMOTE TV, the Festival Major Sponsor, supports the Silver Alexander award with a cash prize of 5,000 euros.
Denis Côté
Denis Côté (New Brunswick, Canada, 1973) produced and directed 15 independent short films while working as a journalist and film critic from 1995 until 2005. His first feature film Les états nordiques (2005) was awarded the video Golden Leopard in Locarno International Film Festival. Vic+Flo Saw A Bear won the Silver Bear for Innovation at Berlinale in 2013. Hygiène sociale won the Best Director Award in the Encounters section at Berlinale in 2021. Denis Côté’s award-winning films have been travelling extensively on the film festival circuit, including more than 40 retrospectives of his work.
Denis Côté (New Brunswick, Canada, 1973) produced and directed 15 independent short films while working as a journalist and film critic from 1995 until 2005. His first feature film Les états nordiques (2005) was awarded the video Golden Leopard in Locarno International Film Festival. Vic+Flo Saw A Bear won the Silver Bear for Innovation at Berlinale in 2013. Hygiène sociale won the Best Director Award in the Encounters section at Berlinale in 2021. Denis Côté’s award-winning films have been travelling extensively on the film festival circuit, including more than 40 retrospectives of his work.
Sara Driver
Sara Driver is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gained initial recognition as producer of two early films by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation (1980) and Stranger Than Paradise (1984). Driver has directed two feature films, Sleepwalk (1986, (Prix Georges Sadoul, Special Prize Mannheim) and When Pigs Fly (1993, Best Film Award – Long Island IFF), a notable short film, You Are Not I (1981), as well as a documentary, Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017). She also wrote the script for the Kloster Brothers’ animation Stranger than Rotterdam (2021, Short Film Special Jury Award at Sundance IFF, Screenwriting, Jury prize for Screenwriting at Aspen Short Film Festival, Audience Award at the Thessaloniki IDF, Best Comedy at Desertscape International FF). She served on the juries of various film festivals throughout the 2000s. Her work has been presented in many retrospectives around the world: Buenos Aires Film Festival (2004), Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2011), Anthology Film Archives NYC (2012), Maine International Film Festival (2014), The Bell Lightbox Theatre Toronto TIFF (2014), the Filmateca in Madrid (2015), the Memphis Film Festival (2019), Roxy NYC (2023). Between 2015 and 2023 she curated the traveling exhibit Zeitgeist the Art around the Teenage Basquiat for Howl Gallery NYC and Spring Break Art Fair.
Sara Driver is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gained initial recognition as producer of two early films by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation (1980) and Stranger Than Paradise (1984). Driver has directed two feature films, Sleepwalk (1986, (Prix Georges Sadoul, Special Prize Mannheim) and When Pigs Fly (1993, Best Film Award – Long Island IFF), a notable short film, You Are Not I (1981), as well as a documentary, Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017). She also wrote the script for the Kloster Brothers’ animation Stranger than Rotterdam (2021, Short Film Special Jury Award at Sundance IFF, Screenwriting, Jury prize for Screenwriting at Aspen Short Film Festival, Audience Award at the Thessaloniki IDF, Best Comedy at Desertscape International FF). She served on the juries of various film festivals throughout the 2000s. Her work has been presented in many retrospectives around the world: Buenos Aires Film Festival (2004), Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2011), Anthology Film Archives NYC (2012), Maine International Film Festival (2014), The Bell Lightbox Theatre Toronto TIFF (2014), the Filmateca in Madrid (2015), the Memphis Film Festival (2019), Roxy NYC (2023). Between 2015 and 2023 she curated the traveling exhibit Zeitgeist the Art around the Teenage Basquiat for Howl Gallery NYC and Spring Break Art Fair.
Konstantinos Kontovrakis
After years of experience as a film critic, festival programmer, and publicist, Greek-born Konstantinos Kontovrakis moved to production in 2010 and has been producing consistently ever since. Kontovrakis has been producer and co-producer on more than 25 internationally acclaimed films, including BAFTA and Un Certan Regard winner How to Have Sex (UK/Greece) by Molly Manning Walker, Angela Schanelek’s Berlinale winner Music (Germany/France/Greece), Palm d’Or winner and Oscar nominated Triangle of Sadness (Sweden/Denmark/Germany/France/Greece) by Ruben Östlund, and Semaine de la Critique winner Feathers (Egypt/France/Netherlands/Greece) by Omar el Zohairy. Kontovrakis was ‘Producer on the Move’ for Greece in Cannes 2014. He is a member of the European and Hellenic Film Academies and is the national representative for Greece at EAVE Producers’ Network. In 2018, Kontovrakis received the prestigious European Co-production Award at the European Film Awards. In 2024, Kontovrakis produced Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (Italy/Greece/UK/France), starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
After years of experience as a film critic, festival programmer, and publicist, Greek-born Konstantinos Kontovrakis moved to production in 2010 and has been producing consistently ever since. Kontovrakis has been producer and co-producer on more than 25 internationally acclaimed films, including BAFTA and Un Certan Regard winner How to Have Sex (UK/Greece) by Molly Manning Walker, Angela Schanelek’s Berlinale winner Music (Germany/France/Greece), Palm d’Or winner and Oscar nominated Triangle of Sadness (Sweden/Denmark/Germany/France/Greece) by Ruben Östlund, and Semaine de la Critique winner Feathers (Egypt/France/Netherlands/Greece) by Omar el Zohairy. Kontovrakis was ‘Producer on the Move’ for Greece in Cannes 2014. He is a member of the European and Hellenic Film Academies and is the national representative for Greece at EAVE Producers’ Network. In 2018, Kontovrakis received the prestigious European Co-production Award at the European Film Awards. In 2024, Kontovrakis produced Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (Italy/Greece/UK/France), starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
