娱乐英语新闻:Greece's 50th Thessaloniki Film Festival opens

THESSALONIKI, Greece, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece's most important film festival, which is hosted each year at northern city of Thessaloniki, opened on Friday evening.

    Greek and foreign artists that will take part in the festival during the next 10 days will try to give answers to the central slogan "Why Cinema Now?" through their work. Turkish director Fatih Akin whose new film "Soul Kitchen" had a premiere at the festival Friday evening.

    Greek Minister of Culture Pavlos Geroulanos at the opening ceremony stressed that cinema is always important "because it helps us discover our identity and others around us through different points of view."

    Inspired by the words of Jean Renoir "In order to stay alive cinema will have to invent everything from scratch," organizers hope that the festival will be an occasion for dialogue and a redefinition of cinema, during the screenings of dozens of films from around the world and open discussions with famous guests.

    The festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The 50th Thessaloniki Film Festival will be attended by big names like German director Werner Herzog who will be honored with a prize for his contribution to art, actress Jane Birkin, the Oscar-winning producer of the Last Emperor, Jeremy Thomas and Jim Giannopoulos, producer and president of 20th Century Fox.