What do a bottle of water, a piece of candy and Greek cinema have in common?
That’s the question posed by a provocative ad running ahead of screenings at this year’s Thessaloniki Film Festival, highlighting the dire state of film funding in Greece.
The 60-second animated spot, which was produced as part of the wider Visibility Zero movement, spotlights how the country ranks dead last in Europe when it comes to public support for its audiovisual industry.
As the ad points out, Greece’s selective funding scheme — which is related specifically to domestic productions and international co-productions — had a budget of just €6.5 million ($7.5 million) in 2025, putting it last among the continent’s screen industries relative to GDP. At 63 cents a head, this per capita expenditure amounts to roughly the cost of a bottle of water and a throat lozenge for every Greek citizen.
Bolstered by a growing coalition of international supporters, Greek filmmakers are calling on their government to shore up their struggling film biz before it’s too late.
“The Greek state has to take a decision to further support the selective programs. Because right now, we cannot be competitive with the money that is [available],” said filmmaker Syllas Tzoumerkas, who directed the 2019 Berlinale premiere “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” and whose last film, “The City and the City,” played at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2022.
“If we want to have a thriving and ambitious Greek cinema, this has to be supported in a significantly more substantial way.”
The Visibility Zero movement was launched in June with an open letter to the Greek government demanding action over the critical state of domestic production.
Sending what it described as a “distress signal” to the Greek culture ministry and Creative Greece, the body created last year to oversee the country’s screen industries, the letter — which attracted more than 2,000 signatories — called for an increase in funding for the country’s audiovisual sector, a concerted effort to clear the backlog of delayed payments from Greece’s cash rebate system and an overhaul of the Creative Greece board to include seasoned industry professionals.
The movement, which takes its name from the 1970 drama by Greek filmmaker Nikos Foskolos, quickly attracted support from nearly 200 international film luminaries, including Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Vicky Krieps, Charlie Kaufman, Ruben Östlund, Radu Jude and Paweł Pawlikowski, who signed a statement “in solidarity with [Greek] filmmakers’ demands for greater support” from their government.
“Attacks on cinema and the arts, whether through action or inaction, are unacceptable,” the statement read. “We remain steadfast in our support of our colleagues in Greece and hope that the artists of one of Europe’s most vibrant and dynamic film industries will soon be operating within a framework that is both appropriate and worthy of their work.”
This week in Thessaloniki, industry professionals have been circulating leaflets and Visibility Zero campaign buttons, hoping to raise awareness about their struggle by ensuring that the movement is anything but invisible to festival guests.
“[Thessaloniki] is our biggest national film event. It is important for the audience to understand that we are making these [films] that they come and see at the festival with [little] means,” said veteran film producer Vicky Miha (“Dogtooth,” “Quiet Life”). Given the current circumstances, she added, “how can we move toward a better future for Greek cinema?”
In response to questions posed by Variety, a representative for Creative Greece (known by its Greek acronym, EKKOMED) insisted that the body “has now entered a stable and mature phase of operation” after a shaky transition period following the organization’s 2017 launch and is focused on a five-year action plan to support the “long-term development of Greek cinema.”
Regarding the backlog of unpaid rebate claims, the rep noted that of the €234 million ($271 million) disbursed by the Greek government since 2019 to support the audiovisual sector through both its cash rebate and selective funding schemes, €88.5 million ($102 million), or 37.8% of the total, has been paid out since Sept. 2024, when EKKOMED was formally established.
In addition, last year, in response to industry demands, EKKOMED raised the budget of its selective funding scheme, with this year’s allocation of €6.5 million ($7.5 million) “marking the highest budget ever for selective programs — an almost 55% increase compared to previous years,” the rep said.
However, Greek filmmakers insist that still falls short of the €15 million ($17.4 million) pledged to the industry by Greek officials in November 2023, and that the increase has done little to close the gap with neighboring countries. The crop of local productions screening this week in Thessaloniki — which includes 32 feature-length and 30 short films, among them 29 premieres — is a byproduct of the industry’s “resilience,” according to Miha, rather than a sign of adequate government support.
Despite their frustration, Greek filmmakers acknowledge the great strides their industry has taken since the cash rebate was introduced in 2019. And they say the efforts of the Visibility Zero movement have sparked a productive dialogue between industry stakeholders and the government that they hope will bear fruit in the months ahead.
“The Greek film industry has changed so much in the past 8 years,” said Miha. “There is progress with the institutions. There’s still a lot of work to be done on many levels, but the goal of everybody is to work together for a stronger Greek cinema.”
The Thessaloniki Film Festival runs Oct. 30 – Nov. 9.