The Festival
The Ethnofest – Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, held annually each November, was an international film festival showcasing humane and insightful socially-minded documentary films from around the globe. Alongside the main programme (Student Films, Panorama, Filmic Experiments), the festival included special screenings, thematic sections, retrospectives, and had a particular orientation towards films that employ and facilitate an ethnographic approach and sensibility. The festival, which was established in 2010 and has grown to be one of the most important and original film festivals in Greece, constitutes every year a significant international meeting place for documentary and ethnographic filmmakers. Each year, through numerous timely and lively parallel events, such as seminars, workshops, masterclasses, Q&A’s and exhibitions, the festival constitutes a major intervention in the city’s cultural and social life, as well as it contributes to international contemporary debates about the present and future of documentary film.
2026 | ETHNOFEST INITIATIONS – International Student Documentary Festival
After a rich and creative journey within the cultural landscape of Athens, we now are moving towards a redefinition of our festival activities. As mentioned December 2025, we decided to reshape the framework of our events, choosing to adopt a more focused and meaningful form of intervention in the city. This transition also contains an essential return. It nods to the organisation’s early years, full of enthusiasm, by looking back to our roots: the support of emerging filmmakers and their fresh, research-driven perspectives.
We are therefore delighted to announce that, from 2026 onwards, the INITIATIONS section becomes an autonomous International Student Documentary Festival, taking the form of a three-day screening event every December. Our focus once again turns exclusively to student films. We return to where we began, creating a new, focused space for expression, visibility, and dialogue for the filmmakers of tomorrow, offering them the platform they need at the start of their documentary filmmaking journey.
The festival has a competitive strand and the award of the competition section will be accompanied by a cash prize of €1000.