Indie thriller directed by Niko Volonakis is one of 321 films eligible for an Oscar nod.
Earlier this month, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the films eligible for an Academy Award©. LYVIA’S HOUSE, an indie romantic psychological thriller set in Northern California, was among the 2023 releases that are eligible for a nomination in the 96th annual Academy Awards. The Oscars are slated for March 10, 2024.
Directed by Niko Volonakis, an American-born Greek who grew up in Athens; and produced by Greek-American Nicholas Levis of BrandCinema; the film was written by Author and Screenwriter Patricia V. Davis.
According to the Academy, to be eligible, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, and complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue. Feature films must have a running time of more than 40 minutes. Nominations voting began on Thursday, January 11, 2024, and concluded on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2024. With this qualification, LYVIA joins Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ POOR THINGS, among other 2023 releases.
Set in a walnut orchard, LYVIA’S HOUSE is inspired by a true story. Years ago when Davis relocated to Sutter County, California, where her husband’s family has owned and operated a rice farm since the 1800s, she fell in love with both the beauty of the area and the people who live there, but was shocked to learn about a series of brutal murders that took place in the orchards not far from her home.
LYVIA’S HOUSE follows Tara, a young journalist who has recently transplanted with her new lover from the lavish milieu where she was raised, to the beautiful but bucolic home of a missing Italian artist named Lyvia. Town talk of the lovely but reclusive Lyvia is dismissive, even mocking, but Tara soon begins to wonder if the artist’s disappearance is somehow connected to murders that took place in the area twenty years earlier. As Tara sees and hears things that seem more and more irrational, she begins to doubt her own sanity. But is she truly experiencing a dissolving sense of reality, or is she simply unaware of the tortured relationships of those surrounding her?
Area residents rallied around the creation of the film, and through its beautiful cinematography and skilled direction shines as a love letter back to the community.
With cinematography by Sacramento-based Cody Martin, and starring Tara Nichol Caldwell plus Greek-American Joshua Malekos, the film has screened at film festivals in the US, Greece, and Canada, and has garnered multiple awards.
The final public screening took place on January 19 at the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts in Yuba City, California. The sold-out crowd enjoyed a meet and greet with Lead Actors Caldwell and Malekos, and a special visit by Lyvia herself. A Q&A followed, featuring Volonakis, Levis, Davis, and Martin. The film heads to streaming soon. For more information, visit lyviashouse.com.
