Greece’s Arkoudotrypa/Bearcave wins Europa Cinemas Venice Label 2025
Greek directors Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna B. Papadakis’ Arkoudotrypa/Bearcave has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European Film in the Giornate degli Autori section of the Venice Film Festival, it was announced today by a jury of four Europa Cinemas Network exhibitors. 2025 marks the twenty second time the Label has been awarded in Venice.
In receiving the Label, Arkoudotrypa/Bearcave will benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programming schedule.
The Jury consisted of Manuel Asín (Cine Estudio del Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain);
Simon Blaas (Cinema Middelburg, Middelburg, The Netherlands); Ivan Frenguelli (PostModernissimo, Perugia, Italy) and Signe-Annie Lindstedt (Zita Folkets Bio, Stockholm, Sweden).
The jury issued the following statement: “Arkoudotrypa/Bearcave is a really fresh and energetic feature debut from Stergios Dinopolous and Krysianna B. Papadakis, with a young and very talented crew behind them. The film follows the relationship between two young queer women high up in the Balkan mountains. Both a clash and a fusion of the old and new, the film is constructed a little like a thriller, but there is also more than a touch of the supernatural. The music, editing and photography are really original, and the performances by the two girls are exceptional. We really hope that the award of the Label will encourage distributors and audiences around Europe.”
Arkoudotrypa/Bearcave is a Pame Ligo Collective production co-produced with Pucci Productions with the support of the Greek Film Centre. The producers are Emily Sky Hickin, Stergios Dinopolous, Krysianna B. Papadakis, Thanasis Michalopolous, Arsinoi Pilou, and Ishan Sanjay Deshpande.
Photography is by Arsinoi Pilou, editing by Vagelis Katsaros, Krysianna B. Papadakis and Stergios Dinopoulos, music by John Tournas, sound by Arielle Esther, set design by Loukia Limperi Oraiopoulou and costumes by Marianthi Christodoulou.
The cast is Hara Kyriazi (Argyro), Pamela Oikonomaki (Anneta), Sofia Linospori (Anneta's mother-in-law), Vaso Gkougkara (Anneta's grandmother), Lefteris Tsatsis (Argyro's father) and Sozos Christou (Mike).
In Tirna, a mountain village in Greece, Argyro is a spirited farmer, while her best friend Anneta is the most popular girl in town and works as a manicurist. When Anneta reveals she's pregnant and intends to follow her rather nerdy policeman boyfriend, Argyro challenges her to an adventure: finding the mythical Bear Cave. But before Argyro has a chance to declare his love, Anneta leaves for her new life in the big city. Argyro is devastated. Meanwhile, in her new home, with her mother-in-law constantly clinging to her, Anneta realizes her destiny lies elsewhere.
“Arkoudotrypa is a love odyssey that blends genres, set in the heart of Balkan mountain folklore. It offers a fresh perspective on the lives of two young queer women in Greece. It explores their relationship through the lens of youth, in a bright and humorous way, contrasting with the darkness and suffering we might expect when observing the lives of queer people in rural areas. This film represents a new way of making cinema, both practical and political: it is made through a popular and collectivist approach, in harmony with the divine feminine and nature. It is a homemade film, shot in our grandmothers' homes, with a young crew led by women, by a host of talented and emerging Greek filmmakers.” (Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysianna B. Papadakis)
Stergios Dinopoulos grew up in Athens and studied art, film, and visual studies at Harvard University, where he won the prestigious Hoopes Prize for his graduate film. He works as a director, screenwriter, and editor, and in 2022 and 2023 he made the short films Bluebird and Arkoudotrypa , the latter co-directed with Krysianna B. Papadakis. Dinopoulos has also been a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art and has taught film and storytelling to young adults and adolescents for years. He enjoys saturated colors and dance.
Krysianna B. Papadakis is a Greek-New Zealand writer and director. Her work explores queer identity, rural transformation, and Balkan folklore from a poetic and political perspective, drawing on a background in philosophy and politics at Harvard and media theory at Oxford. Before film, she worked as a theatre director in the UK. Her short film Arkoudotrypa , co-directed with Stergios Dinopoulos, won the Best Film Award at DISFF 2023. This new version marks the feature-length debut of both filmmakers.
Previous winners of the Europa Cinemas Label in Venice include:
2024: Alpha/Jan-Willem van Ewijk (Netherlands)
2023: Photophobia/Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík/Slovenia
2022: Dirty Difficult and Dangerous/Wissam Charaf/France
2021: Californie/Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kaufmann/Italy
2020: Oaza/Oasis/Ivan Ikić/Serbia
2019: Corpus Christi/Jan Komasa/Poland
2018: Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai/Austria
2017: M/Sara Forestier/France
2016 : Sami Blood/Amanda Kernell/Sweden
2015 : A peine j'ouvre les yeux/Leyla Bouzid/France
2014 : I nostri ragazzi/Ivano de Matteo/Italy
2013 : La belle vie/Jean Denizot/France
2012 : Crawl/Hervé Lasgouttes/France
2011 : Présumé coupable/Vincent Garenq/France
2010 : Le bruit des glaçons/Bertrand Blier/France
Europa Cinemas in 2025:
39 countries / 3146 screens / 799 cities
Europa Cinemas is supported by Creative Europe/MEDIA, Programme of the European Union (Brussels), CNC (France), Eurimages (Council of Europe, Strasbourg),
Institut Français (Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, France)
