From 2020 until today, more than a hundred international and domestic productions have chosen the Greek capital for their filming.
Athens is constantly gaining ground in the choices of international producers as a setting for filming movies and TV series.
Following in the footsteps of major European cities and with the assistance of the Athens Film Office created by the Municipality of Athens through the Development and Tourism Promotion Company (EATA), from 2020 until today, more than a hundred international and domestic productions have chosen the Greek capital for their filming.
The new mayor of Athens, Mr. Haris Doukas, has seen the work done by the Athens Film Office. Regarding this organisation, he stated: "Through the Athens Film Office, the Municipality of Athens welcomes and this year great international film productions, consistently supporting entrepreneurship, employment and the city's economy. In the coming years, our goal is to attract even more quality producers, who will dynamically strengthen the visibility of Athens abroad, ensure significant income for the city and support the audiovisual industry workers in our country".
Three international television series have already been booked for the first half of 2024, while there are also films in the works whose directors and producers are considering choosing Athens.
Speaking to Proto Thema, the director of the Athens Film Office, Mr. Stathis Kalogeropoulos, explained that so far, the series "House of David", "Girl from Oslo" and a French series called "Kabul" have filmed in the capital.
"The goal of the Athens Film Office, which officially operates while the preparatory work had already started since 2019, is to continue so that the Municipality of Athens supports international and domestic productions. We also want to rationalise the pricing policy of the licenses and, of course, to promote Athens even more abroad, and for this reason, we will be present at international festivals to promote our city as a film destination. Also, our goal is to help as many people as we can to get into the audiovisual field because it is an industry that pays much better and can provide career opportunities in both the creative and the technical part."
As Mr. Kalogeropoulos explained, the Athens Film Office of the Municipality of Athens is in close cooperation with EKOME and the Cinema Center.
"The role of our office is to serve the productions and coordinate all the services of the Municipality in one shoot. Also, when there is no need for the Municipality to communicate with the central government to facilitate production so that, other infrastructures are also used. In the last four years, the direct income of the municipality has reached 650,000 euros from the permits, but there is also the indirect income from the services bought by the people who come to shoot a film or TV series. The purpose of the municipality is to create an ecosystem in the audiovisual industry. With this logic, we have already done a training course for production assistants in collaboration with Universal. It took place in May 2022, from which 57 people graduated, of which 23 found a job within the next two months from the seminar."
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