6th BCK Film Symposium

The 6th BCK Film Symposium is taking place from 13 to 22 October 2023 and bears the title Kino Ludens, paraphrasing Johan Huizinga’s monograph Homo Ludens, which explored, for the first time, the vital benefits of playing to culture and society. Through a series of screenings, artistic audio-visual installations, film workshops, and parallel events occasioned by the moving image, and among various locations in Athens, this year’s symposium focuses on the presence of playing and games as well as their radical significance in the multiple aspects of child and adult existence and everyday life. 

There will be programs curated by Balkan Can Kino from our open call & from the film libraries of the British Council & the Goethe Institute of Athens, Dagie Brundert‘s retrospective, curated by the Pugnant Film Series, as well as contemporary silent cinema with live dj set, curated by Fade Radio. At the same time, the three-day installation PLAY – PAUSE – STOP will take place at Zoetrope, where around 40 audiovisual works from Greece and the rest of the world will be presented. There will also be workshops, discussions, and podcasts by the participating artists of the Symposium.

At the end of the festival an audience award will be given to two Greek and two international short films.

All the events of the Symposium are with free admission for the public. All films are screened in the O.V. with English subtitles.

6BCKFS is organized by Balkan Can Kino, a pop-up and mobile Film Festival, Symposium, and Lab, founded in 2017, that presents and supports independant and guerrilla cinema, and by the audiovisual company FLP Athens, founded in 2020, in Athens, focusing on the promotion of experimental and arthouse cinema, the organization of cultural events and workshops, as well as the provision of artistic services.

6BCKFS is under the aegis and support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and of Europe for Festivals – Festivals for Europe, and is supported by the Greek Film Center. Communication sponsors are ERT and Kosmos Radio.

This year’s venues for the Symposium are the Television Control Centre, PreLab, Goethe Institute of Athens, Zoetrope, the children’s bookstore Gatos Maurizio and the Athens Zine Biblioteque.