LOS ANGELES – At the star studded closing night of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF) Academy Award Screenwriter and Director Alexander Payne received the 2017 Honorary Orpheus Award. Paramount Pictures President and CEO Jim Gianopulos presented the director with the award, in front of a capacity crowd at the historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
In his introduction Mr. Gianopulos told the crowd how he came to know the director. Gianopulos was in a meeting with a lawyer who said to him, “I just met another of your Greek co-patriots, a talented director. When I asked him who he was he said, Alexander Payne.” Gianopulos’ reply was ” With a last name Payne I would never guess he is Greek. Are you sure?” A couple of weeks later they were having lunch and their collaboration began.
Their first collaboration was the Academy Award nominated film Sideways distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a sister company of 20th Century Fox Co.where Gianopulos was President that time. The comedy-drama film was written by Jim Taylor and Payne who also directed.
The film about two men in their forties, a depressed teacher and an actor past his prime on a week long road trip to Santa Barbara wine country became an indie sensation. “Alexander passed on some A-list actors who wanted to play the lead roles, until he found the right ones to match the story” Gianopulos said. Taylor and Payne hit gold by winning the Academy Award for Best Adopted Screenplay.
Their next collaboration, The Descendants also won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Payne. The director who had forgotten to thank his mother in his first acceptance speech, did so in Greek this time becoming “the only one in the history of the Oscars to thank his mother in Greek,” Gianopulos said. The movie also won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture-Drama and Best Actor-Drama for its lead actor star George Clooney.
In his acceptance speech Alexander Payne thanked LAGFF for the honor he received and spoke about his journey in the entertainment industry. “I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and did not know anyone in the entertainment industry, but I realized early on that I wanted to be on that creative side of films. My parents strongly disagreed with my choice, they told me go to law school first to have something to fall back,” Payne said.
“Although I love my parents, that is the worst possible advice you can give to your kids. Tell them to follow their passion first and if not successful, then go to Plan B.” The director who is on the Honorary Board of LAGFF but has “been so busy that I have not been able to contribute as much” encouraged the festival to bring in more comedies. He did so by quoting the famous director Billy Wilder known for such films such as Some Like It Hot, who said, “If you are going to tell the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.”
He also said that he hopes that Greek Cinema will find its new movie stars that will put it back on the map. “Where would Greek cinema be without Irene Pappas or Melina Merkouri? Or Italian cinema without Marcello Mastroianni? I hope that new stars will rise and resurrect the film industry in Greece,” Payne said.
He then presented an extended clip from his upcoming film “Downsizing” that will be distributed by Paramount Pictures prompting Jim Gianopulos to say laughingly, “I love Alexander so much that I left Fox to go to Paramount just to be with him again.”
The Orpheus Award for Best Feature went to “America Square” a film directed by Yiannis Sakaridis and Son of Sofia received the runner-up Special Jury Prize for features. The films were, respectively, the opening and closing night presentations for the festival and both dealt with the refugee crisis in different styles. Earth Friendly Products’ CEO Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks gave out the Van Vlahakis Award for Best Short Film to director Vangelis Liberopoulos’ short, Play.
The award is named after her late father and longtime sponsor of the LAGFF. The LAGFF Audience Award went to The Other Me and was given out by Greek actor Christos Vassilopoulos who said that “without the audience there would be no cinema. Or paid actors. The watch, the condominium, everything I have is because of the audience.”
In accepting the award director Sotiris Tsafuoulias told Vassilopoulos that “contrary to you I lost my watch, my condo and everything I have in order to make this movie” giving the audience a good laugh. At the conclusion of the awards ceremony a celebration took place at the Egyptian Theater’s courtyard.
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