CINEMA & SOUVLAKI
Local flavours and island culture came together with international cinema in a shared celebration of community by the sea.
Kamini Port | Sunday 5 October 2025
Our much-loved Cinema & Souvlaki event returned during ArtCinema Hydra 2025, welcoming audiences of all ages to Kamini Port for an evening of local food, community and international cinema.
Before the screenings began, Greek percussionist Alekos Roupas delivered an energetic 20-minute live performance for families and guests. Bringing rhythm and movement to the waterfront, his performance set a joyful and communal tone for the evening ahead.
The programme opened with a family-focused selection of animated short films presented by Vassilis Karamitsanis, founder and President of the ANIMASYROS International Animation Festival. Drawn from the festival’s international programme, the screening introduced young audiences to the creativity and storytelling of animation while strengthening ArtCinema’s cultural collaboration with ANIMASYROS and supporting new opportunities for film education on Hydra.
The evening continued with Paweł Pawlikowski’s Muse, a short film shot at Hydra’s Old Carpet Factory recording studio. Starring Małgosia Bela and Marcin Masecki, the film explores the tensions of the creative process as harmony between a pianist and his temperamental muse dissolves into a battle of wills.
Closing the programme was the acclaimed French animated feature Pets on a Train (Falcon Express), produced by TAT Productions. The film follows a group of animal bandits caught aboard a runaway train, leaving petty thief Falcon and police dog Rex to rescue the passengers. The film was presented in Greek with English subtitles.
Kamini Port | Sunday 6 October 2024
During the Closing Night of our ArtCinema Hydra 2024 programme, we transformed the scenic Kamini Port into a vibrant community open-air cinema that welcomed audiences of all ages to share in the experience.
The programme opened with an introduction from ArtCinema founder Amanda Palmer and special guest Leonidas Christopoulos, newly appointed CEO of Creative Greece, Greece’s national audiovisual industry body under the Ministry of Culture. Christopoulos publicly endorsed ArtCinema’s vision, describing it as “a passion for the new” and expressing his support for the initiative’s future development.
Greek filmmaker and screenwriter Yannis Sakaridis, Artistic Director of the Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF), presented a selection of award-winning short films from the festival which were celebrated and cherished by local and invited audiences alike.
The evening continued with a special presentation of two episodes from So Long, Marianne, the international series inspired by the relationship between Canadian singer-poet Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen. Filmed partly on Hydra, the series carried particular significance for the island and its community. Producer Richard Tulk-Hart of Buccaneer, together with Nancy Kokalaki and Dionyssis Samiotis of Tanweer Productions, joined the event and thanked the Hydra community for its support during production.
One of the night’s most memorable moments came unexpectedly, when 93-year-old Kamini resident Stamatis Vlachodimitris — an accordion player, boatman and friend of Leonard Cohen — addressed the audience. His personal recollections of Cohen brought the evening back to Hydra itself, connecting the contemporary screen story with the island’s living cultural memory.