Watch here live the Opening Ceremony of the 8th Beyond Borders | Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival

Link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoHkr2ZbAfI

For its 8th edition, Beyond Borders returns to the very beginning: roots and soil. The materials that all humans are made of. The raw material of birth, flight, return and eternal silence.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the mandatory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey, the Festival aspires to bring back the question of expatriation and uprooting to the present day and to critically reflect on it. To problematize with personal stories that end up being collective and to observe major developments in modern societies and how they affect the individual everyday life of all of us.

Tapping into the privileged field of audio-visual storytelling offered by cinema, the 8th edition of Beyond Borders through its screenings and many side cultural activities (art exhibitions, book presentations, educational and artistic workshops and lectures, musical concerts and interludes) aims at creative reconciliation with its audience and the production of an open reflection inviting us to consider whether what unites us is more than what divides us.

Closing the call for film submissions for the 8th edition of Beyond Borders | Castellorizo ​​International Documentary Festival, the organization of the Festival announces with great joy and pride the submission of a total of 835 films from 93 different countries, marking a new record in the history of the institution!

Now in its 8th year, Beyond Borders has managed to establish itself as an international meeting point for filmmakers and documentary professionals, always aiming to highlight socio-political key issues through the beauty of cinematic storytelling and art. The organization owes a debt of gratitude to all of the creators for their trust and support, thus including a number of world, international and Greek premieres in this year's upcoming Beyond Borders's screenings program.

The Festival was primarily supported and loved by the residents of Castellorizo. With persistence, reliability and passion, the organizing team managed to create a model institution of its kind. Hundreds of directors, producers, directos of other international film festivals, film critics and professionals of the film industry trusted the organization in all previous years and of course the audiences, who attend the Festival, actively participate in its actions and have an additional reason to visit the island during the days of its conduct.

24 medium and feature length films and 24 short films will be shown this year in the two competition stages of the Festival. The finalists will be notified of their selection within the next month, while the detailed program with the screenings and activities of the Festival will be announced at the official press conference of the organization in June. More details on the time and venue of the press conference will be announced soon.

The Festival is under the patronage of the H.E. of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The organization belongs to the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME) in collaboration with the French Ecrans des Mondes.

Co-organization with the South Aegean Region. PPC - the leading Greek electric utility, with activities in electricity generation, distribution network operation and supply of electricity to end consumers - is the platinum sponsor of the Festival, while it has the support of the Hellenic Film Center, the National Audiovisual Media and Communication Center (EKOME), the Hellenic Parliment, the General Secretariat of Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Greek National Tourism Organization, the Municipality of Megisti Island, the Embassy of Germany in Athens, the Embassy of Australia in Athens, the Embassy of Spain in Athens and the Czech Center of Athens.

With great joy and enthusiasm "Beyond Borders" | Castellorizo International Documentary Festival announces the signing of a cooperation memorandum with Lykourgos Stavrakos Film & Television School. Having as its programmatic goal, since 2016, the cultural extroversion and the permanent conclusion of film collaborations with institutions in Greece and abroad, "Beyond Borders" and Stavrakos Film School join forces with the aim of developing and promoting the film industry and the artistic form of documentary in our country.

As one of Europe's most upcoming documentary festivals, "Beyond Borders" systematically aims to highlight contemporary cinematography, giving a platform and a voice to young documentary filmmakers around the world.

Through the educational courses-seminars it hosts every year, through the two-day Pitching Lab/Forum in which professionals from the global film industry participate, and through its new competition stage, μicro, the Festival practically stands alongside young and new creators, giving them the opportunity to realize their cinematic visions with the help of leading professionals and partners of "Beyond Borders".

In the framework of cooperation with a network of film schools from the wider Mediterranean region, South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the Festival is particularly proud to cooperate with the greatest and oldest film school in Greece, the Lykourgos Stavrakos Film & Television School, through which leading representatives of contemporary Greek cinema have emerged, distinguished themselves and excelled.

"Beyond Borders" and the Stavrakos Film School, on the occasion of the 8th edition of the Festival that will take place from August 20-27 in "Edge of Aegean" (Castellorizo), decide on the direct cooperation of the students of Stavrakos Film School with the organization of the Festival.

Indicatively, this partnership includes the participation of completed films in the μicro competition scene - through which the winning films will be shown on Phoenix, one of the largest European documentary television networks -, participation in the Pitching Lab/Forum, participation in the international group of film students with the aim of learning the stages of production (documentary studio), participation in the programming teams of the Festival, etc.

Through this joint effort, the two institutions look forward to the development and promotion of the artistic genre of documentary, aspiring for the domestic new generation of documentarians to star in the European and global cinema scene, in the years to come.

The Festival is under the auspices of H.E. of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The organization belongs to the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME) with the co-organization of Ecrans des Mondes (Paris) and the Region of South Aegean.

The programming teams of the 8th "Beyond Borders" | ​​International Documentary Film Festival of Castellorizo

20 – 27 August 2023

"Where Documentary meets History and Culture"

Radically upgraded shall be this year the 8th edition of "Beyond Borders" | ​​International Documentary Film Festival of Castellorizo!

After the highly successful 7th edition in 2022, in which 790 films from 100 different countries were submitted and 26 nationwide and world/international premieres were shown, "Beyond Borders" is preparing its 8th and biggest edition, with many surprises for both the cinephile public as well as film industry professionals.

Having started on January 3rd, the organization had opened again this year the call for film submissions to all documentary filmmakers dealing with historical events and personalities, with socio-political issues, contemporary or not, with the promotion of human rights and in general with any cross-border core of reflection that reflects the concerns of contemporary cinematographic art, with a final submission deadline of 30 April.

The difficult task of selection will be entrusted to the Festival's programming teams, which are made up of renowned directors, film critics and theorists, producers, distributors, executives of film festivals and audiovisual production organizations, film programmers, etc.

More specifically, for the Official Competition Section, the organization of the Festival dedicates special mention to: Marianna Oikonomou (director/producer), Panos Dendramis (cinema professor), Aphrodite Kairaki (academic), Onur Kocatürk (director), Makis Kouzelis (academic ), Veronika Dvorakova (film festival executive), Emilia Bouriti (director/performer), Markus Nikel (RAI TV), Tasos Giapoutzis (director), Ruggero Calich (programmer/critic), Dimitris Papacharalambous (EKOME), Shany Littman (journalist) , Ifigenia Tzouganatou (sociologist), Tereza Stastna (producer), Rebecca Zani (screenwriter), Amir Tajik (director/producer), Angélique Bantikos (marketing development manager), Christian Fienga (director/producer), Alireza Zarei (distributor/researcher) and Nourna Batani (cinephile)

Finally, the organization would like to express public thanks to the programming team of the new competition stage, μicro, and to Jean Christoph Caron (Phoenix documentary department head), Alice Tasciyan (film critic), Tassos Alevras (director/producer), Giorgos Papakonstantinou ( director / academic), Alessandra Voss (television network executive) and Stefanos Velmachos Bonos (historian/Festival’s executive).

The Festival is under the auspices of H.E. President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The organization belongs to the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME) with the co-organization of Ecrans des Mondes (Paris) and the Region of South Aegean.