Yorgos Avgeropoulos receives the Otto Brenner Special Award for AGORA

This year’s Otto Brenner Special Award for Critical Journalism by the German Otto Brenner Foundation was given to Greek documentary filmmaker Yorgos Avgeropoulos for his film AGORΑ at the awards ceremony that took place in Berlin on November 17. The Otto Brenner Special Award is a rather honorific distinction in Germany, destined to German and foreign journalists for “outstanding and excellent journalistic analyses” that were published in the German media.

Otto Brenner Awards are given on a year basis to honour the spirit and heritage of democrat activist and politician Otto Brenner (1907-1972). Although the Special Award for Critical Journalism was primarily created for essays and editorial articles, this year the jury decided for the first time to give it to a documentary film, AGORΑ, the film-arc of the Greek Crisis, which was broadcasted by Public Television WDR in February and received an overwhelming response by audiences in Germany.

At the packed venue of Pullman Schweizerhof in Berlin, journalist and jurist Heribert Prantl, head of the domestic policy department of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, delivered the Otto Brenner Special Award to Yorgos Avgeropoulos and read the jury’s statement:

“[…] The film chronicles in 90 minutes more than four years of the European crisis from the Greek point of view. It shows the political and social effects of the crisis through captivating, often astonishing images. […]The film is a subtle accusation: it tackles all aspects of the crisis with accuracy, thoroughness and attention to detail. The fatal results of the so-called rescue politics of the EU for the Greek society have rarely been brought so close to us as in this film.
[…]
Greece as a debtor. Watching the film made me think of Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’. […] If it is archaic and immoral that debts are paid with flesh and blood, then what should be said about the burdens, cuts and harsh austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece and other southern EU countries? […]This work is a great editorial, a compelling essay by means of the documentary film language. The film shows the magnitude of the crisis and its dangerous abyss. It does not simply illustrate but rather stimulates intensive discussion. This is the most important thing that documentary film can achieve.”

Other Otto Brenner Awards in 2015 were given to: Ashwin Raman for the reportage “The 13th Year – The Lost War in Afghanistan” (Die Story im Ersten, SWR/ARD, 1st Prize), Silja Kummer for the article series “A Fistful of Dollars” (Heidenheimer Zeitung, 2nd Prize) and Jochen Leufgens, Robert Kempe, Daniel Hechler, and Florian Bauer for the reportage “The selling football – Sepp Blatter and the power of FIFA” (The Story of the First, WDR / SWR, 3rd Prize).

AGORA AT THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRIMED IN MARSEILLE

AGORΑ participates in the International Competition of the 19th International Film Festival of Mediterranean Film & Reportage PriMed (5-12 December 2015) in Marseille, France.

This year’s festival competition features 24 films representing 18 countries, among which 3 films from Greece. AGORΑ has been programmed in the competition category “Mediterranean Challenges”. The film will screen on Thursday 10 December at 17:30 at Villa Méditerrannée.

WATCH AGORA ON VOD

While the film’s international tour continues, AGORΑ is also available worldwide through online streaming at Vimeo On Demand in five languages: Greek, English, French, German and Spanish.

Watch it at agora.smallplanet.gr