On Monday 26th November, 2018 at the iconic building of BAFTA in Piccadilly, London, “Amerika Square”, the Greek feature film which represented Greece at the 90th Academy Awards earlier this year in the ‘Best Foreign Language’ film category, was chosen as the winner of the 2018 tve Founders Award for Sustainability on the Big Screen.
This award was presented alongside eight other Awards for a range of films all focusing the world’s attention on the Sustainable Development Goals.
The tve Global Sustainability Film Awards were established in 2012 by the charity tve (Television for the Environment), and Awards founder Surina Narula MBE. Last year Mrs Narula founded this specific award focusing on feature films. This was the second year of this special Award.
The charity tve, which organises the Awards each year, was set up in 1984 by Central Television, now part of the UK’s ITV television network, WWF-UK, and the United Nations Environment Programme. Their mission is to inspire change for a greener fairer world through the power of film.
The UK producers of the film, George T. Lemos and Nikkos J. Frangos of Marblemen Productions Ltd were in attendance to collect the award from the Awards Founder, Surina Narula MBE.
After announcing the winning film, a short clip was shown as the recipients came on to the stage. Having received the attractive glass award, George T. Lemos spoke to the audience in the auditorium.
“WE ARE EXTREMELY HONOURED TO BE THE SECOND RECIPIENTS OF THE TVE FOUNDERS AWARD FOR SUSTAINABILITY ON THE BIG SCREEN.
OUR THANKS GO TO TVE & FASTFLOW GROUP, TO THE INSPIRATIONAL FILM AWARD FOUNDER SURINA NARULA MBE AND TO STEVEN BERNSTEIN AND THE JUDGES FOR THEIR FAVOURABLE DECISION.
WE CONGRATUATE OUR DIRECTOR AND DRIVING FORCE YANNIS SAKARIDIS AND THE PROTAGONISTS WHO CREATED CREDIBLE PASSIONATE AND FRAGILE CHARACTERS LIVING ON THE EDGE OF SOCIETY.
WE STRIVED TO MAKE A FILM THAT BUILDS A DEEPER EMPATHY FOR MIGRANTS AND A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR REALITIES, NEEDS AND PERSEPCTIVES AND TO INFLUENCE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THEM IN A POSITIVE MANNER, HIGHLIGHTING THEIR OVERALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE STRUGGLES THEY FACE IN TODAY’S WORLD ON THE MOVE.
THIS SMALL INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION HAS TRAVELLED WORLDWIDE, CREATING A TELLING IMPRESSION, AND HAS BEEN SHOWN AT THE UNITED NATIONS IN NEW YORK AT THE IOM GLOBAL MIGRATION CONFERENCE AND AT HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVALS SO WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE BEEN RECOGNISED TONIGHT BY YOUR PRESTIGIOUS ORGANISATION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”
After the Awards ceremony, there was a dinner with live entertainment, a silent auction and plenty of networking around the room. George T. Lemos and Nikkos J. Frangos were invited to sit on the Founder’s table as her guests. Other distinguished guests around the table included Lisa Aziz (Sky News presenter) , Baroness Young of Hornsey and Denise Parkinson (Global Entertainment Director of The Telegraph) to name a few.
We congratulate Marblemen Productions and everyone involved in ‘Amerika Square’ for achieving yet another distinctive trophy for a film that the Hollywood Reporter called, “one of the best European films to date on the subject of immigration in all its painful implications”.
