Record Submissions and a New Visual Identity for the 10th Anniversary Edition

With a record-breaking 907 submissions from 92 countries, Beyond Borders | Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival launches its 10th anniversary edition (24–31 August 2025) with renewed momentum, marking a decade of international presence, cinematic freedom and bold storytelling. From the remote yet globally connected island of Kastellorizo, the Festival continues to build bridges between creators and audiences from around the world.

Strategic Partner of Beyond Borders is PPC (Public Power Corporation)—the leading clean energy company in Southeastern Europe—which actively supports the arts and culture, as well as everything and everyone that leads us toward a future where culture takes center stage.

This year’s submissions (600 medium and feature-length films and 307 short films) include global, European, and Greek premieres; works already awarded at major international film festivals; and fresh voices from emerging filmmakers who dare to narrate our times with a bold and personal gaze. The scale and scope of participation once again affirm the growing international reach and artistic prestige of Beyond Borders—not merely as a festival of screenings, but as a meeting point of ideas, cultures and narratives. Behind every film lies a desire for connection, empathy, and understanding—an impulse that resonates deeply with the Festival’s spirit over the past decade.

For 2025, Greece will be the Country of Honor and the thematic spotlight turns toward its rich narrative heritage. From the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles—timeless depictions of the human condition—to the biting comedies of Aristophanes, Greek storytelling has always transcended borders, eras and forms. The roots of cinematic narration in the Balkans can be traced to the Weavers by the Manaki brothers (1905), capturing everyday life with disarming simplicity. Over time, a distinct national voice emerged—from folk dramas and traditional costume films to the golden age of Greek cinema with Finos Film and the rise of internationally acclaimed filmmakers like Michael Cacoyannis and Nikos Koundouros.

The post-war journey of Greek cinema has been one of contrast. The New Greek Cinema movement of the 1970s brought political consciousness to the forefront, with auteurs like Theodoros Angelopoulos and Pantelis Voulgaris forging new visual languages. After a quieter period, the emergence of the Greek Weird Wave in the late 2000s reaffirmed the creative power of Greek cinema, using daring narrative forms, symbolic minimalism and postmodern sensitivity to express the existential anxieties of our age—linking the personal to the collective, the familiar to the surreal.

Today, Greek cinema retains its creative pulse, telling both small and sweeping stories with immediacy, lyricism and social awareness. With a new generation of filmmakers and an increasing number of international accolades, Greece is more ready than ever to claim its rightful place in the global cinematic landscape.

In its 10th edition, Beyond Borders honors this cinematic journey through a special tribute to Greek documentary—a genre that confronts reality, interprets it, critiques it and ultimately transforms it. In Kastellorizo—a symbolic place of historical memory and cultural osmosis—the art of storytelling continues its tireless voyage. In a world often shrinking under the weight of hatred, the Festival insists on expanding our horizons. Through its films, it takes on the most human and demanding mission of all: the search for our shared humanity, wherever it may dwell.

The Festival’s new visual identity, designed by creative studio Polkadot Design, draws inspiration from the art of weaving—a craft that symbolizes memory, narrative, and continuity. Just as the Weavers of 1905 wove their present by hand, today’s documentarians weave the intricate tapestry of contemporary life digitally, through image and sound. Greek documentary becomes a cinematic loom, interlacing past and present to form a narrative canvas that reaches into the future.

Organized by: Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME), in collaboration with the French organization Ecrans des Mondes.

Co-organized by: South Aegean Region, with the support of the Hellenic Parliament, the Ministry of National Defense, the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Secretariat for the Aegean and Island Policy of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Centre – Creative Greece, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), and the Embassies of Australia, Germany, Austria and Spain in Athens.