At the Olympia International Film Festival, we are not interested in films that merely portray childhood or childlikeness on screen, but in those that choose to address children and young people as their audience. We seek cinematic narratives that look children and adolescents in the eye — stories that do not speak about them in their absence, but with them, in genuine dialogue. For many years, it was difficult to find Greek films that carried such qualities. In recent times, however, these examples seem to be multiplying. It is precisely this shift that gave birth to Traces
The section was inaugurated last year with the hope that Greek film production would allow it to evolve into a permanent fixture of the Olympia Festival — a living space of discovery, where each year the trends of a new Greek cinema for children and youth are charted
This year marks a clear step toward consolidating the program. The annual production proved so rich and mature that we faced the — as the Greek saying goes — “pleasant headache” of having to leave out worthy films that met all the criteria. This fact demonstrates that the Greek filmmaking community is now engaging more systematically with children and young audiences as equal interlocutors and creative horizons — at least in the realm of short films. And that is something that fills us with genuine satisfaction. Once again, the Traces program retains a competitive character. The films will be evaluated by the Festival’s International Jury for Feature Fiction Films, which will present the Award for Best Greek Short Film for Children and Youth, accompanied by a cash prize of €2,000, generously offered by ERT S.A
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