San Francisco Greek Film Festival
Oct. 3–10
Online and drive-in
Who knew the S.F. Greek Film Festival has been around for 17 years? Paradoxically, in the year of the pandemic, the fest is taking its light from under a bushel and reaching out to a broader audience. How? By making its program of streaming offerings completely free. The only paid event is the Oct. 4 drive-in screening of Jules Dassin’s wonderful 1964 caper comedy Topkapi at Par 3 at Poplar Creek in San Mateo.
Katia Goulioni in ‘My Name is Eftihia.’ (San Francisco Greek Film Festival)
The market for foreign films in the U.S. was shrinking long before the pandemic, and its hellishly difficult for Greek movies to find distribution. Even a slew of Hellenic Academy Awards (best feature film, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, production design) wasn’t enough to land a U.S. buyer for My Name is Eftihia. From that perspective, the S.F. Greek Film Festival’s presentation of Angelos Frantzis’ epic drama about the poet and lyricist Eftihia Papagianopoulou is something of a gift.