With due pomp and a large crowd, the Award Ceremony of the 16th International Film Festival of Larissa took place. On an impressive evening, with presenters Vangelis Voulaga and Anna Zerdeli directed by Akis Mitsoulis, the awards were presented to the winners of each category, while the surprise of the event was the Performance by the renowned State School of Dance «Les Danseurs» - Ioanna Karpouzou.
This year, 260 short films and animations from all over the world submitted. The pre-selection committee, consisting of Sotirios Petridis (director/screenwriter), Alexandros Relllo (director) and Tanja Nanourakis (model/director), had a lot of work to do. Finally, 21 animation films, 7 films related to climate change, 2 films from the Film Festival in Thessaly, 25 films in the international competition, 34 films in the Greek competition and 4 student films were selected to be shown.
A special category was Larissa Lumina at the Festival within the Festival, the first in Greece with films created entirely using artificial intelligence.The following awards were awarded in detail:
Larissa Lumina
Main Award – Best 
AI Short Film
AI Short FilmDANTE’S COMEDIA by Francesco Siro Brigiano ITALY
AI Storytelling Award
FLOATING MEN by Artarchist
Most Innovative AI Technique
Are we becoming robots? by Joe Andre Ata LIBANON
Best Greek AI Film
Feels surreal by Eliana Tablikou GREECE
Lumina Muse Challenge
SOMEWHERE. NOWHERE. NEVER. By Kirill Karnovich-Valua SLOVENIA
Best film about climate change«Air» by Giannis Bleta
Category «Filming in Thessaly"
First Prize
Evangelos Hadjichostantinou
First Prize for Best Photography
Alexis Mitrakoulis
Category: Animation
The jury consisted of:
Melandros Ganas, Artistic Director of LA comics festival
Eleni Mouri, Professor of Animation at the University of Western Attica
Daphne Xourafia, Animator, Director
1st Prize family portrait from Croatia
2nd prize Ana Morphosa from Portugal
3rd OVO award from France
International – Greek and Student Competition
The international and Greek jury consisted of the following members:
Roby Exiel, journalist and film critic, chairman of the committee.
Sissy Tomasi, Actress
Oreste Tatzis, Director and Artistic Director of the Thessalian Theatre
Andreas Vakaliou, Director
Anastasia Mastrakoulis, Visual Artist, Set Designer and Costume Designer in the Television and Film Industry
1st Prize for Student Film
Disaster from students of the 2nd High School of New Philadelphia
International Competition1st Prize
Masterpiece by Alex Lara (Spain)
2nd Prize
A summer ends poem by Lan Lam Chan – Chao (China)
3rd Prize
Things unheard off by Ramazan Kilic (Turkey)
Special mentions were awarded to the following films:
Do it right special mention of the script by Yaroslav Lebedev (Russia)
The photographer special mention for interpretation by Anna Maria Sturm (France)
Cataract special mention photo for Wokasz Iwanicki (Poland)
Greek Competition
1st Prize
1st prize
Greenhouse of George Georgakopoulos
2nd Prize
Why don't you dance to Penelope Mavropis's music?
3rd Prize
Wings by Fofios Emellou
Special mentions were awarded to the following films:
ABEL special mention for best screenplay for Konstantinos Karamangolis
SCENE MOVEMENT special mention for the best documentary by Nikolta Leousis
Bad kids with saint names special mention for the student film by Viki Anastasiadou.
The evening was honored with their presence among others by the Regional Governor of Thessaly, Mr. Dimitris Kouretas, the Deputy Regional Governor of Culture, Mr. Sotiris Soulogos, the Deputy Regional Governor of Agricultural Development, Mr. Dimitris Tsetsellas, the Deputy Mayor of Culture of the Municipality of Larissa, Mr. Thomas Rezianis, the Director of the French Institute, Ms. Chrysa Voulgaraki, the Director of the STHEV, Ms. Elena Kamaterie, the Culture Advisor in the Thessaly Region, Ms. Kyriaki Spanou, and the Professor of the University of Thessaly, Mr. Stathis Velissarios.
It is recalled that they supported the Festival. The Ministry of Culture, the Thessaly Region, the Hellenic Tourism Organization, the Municipality of Larissa, the French Institute of Larissa, the ECOMED – Hellenic Center of Cinema and the Cultural Center of Educational Larissa.
The sponsors were the Aegean College, The Schools omiros.gr, the , the Sport Travel Melina, the Easy Education Lifelong Learning Center, the Thessaloniki Film School Hollywood studio Thessaloniki and the Katalist Company.
Communication sponsors were the Greek Travel Pages, MyPortal.gr, kourdistoportokali.com, Mag24 Online Magazine, Radio Cult, RADIO POLIS 99.4, TheNewspaper.gr and IDEES trikalaidees.gr.The tribute to Japanese Cinema at the International Film Festival of Larissa was included in the program of certified Events/Activities for the «2024: Year of Culture and Tourism of Japan – Greece».
