By Eugenio R. Bregman a Film Industry Watch contributor and Greek film industry insider.

Update:

A response by EKOMED has been made here.

Greece’s thriving film industry is at war with its own government-backed cultural agency. In an unprecedented petition, nearly 1,896 of the country’s top filmmakers, producers, and technicians — including Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos and legendary director Costa-Gavras (that — have signed an open letter condemning what they call “systemic dysfunction, mismanagement, and broken promises” at the newly established Hellenic Center for Audiovisual Media and Creation (rebranded as EKOMED/Creative Greece).

Unless sweeping reforms are made by September 15, the industry warns, all options — including boycotts and public protest — are on the table.

FilmIndustryWatch.org has been raising red flags for months — and the pattern now emerging points to conduct that could warrant criminal investigation. At the Greek Film Center, state-subsidized evaluators — including Vasilios Kekatos — are alleged to have approved funding for their own projects, a blatant conflict of interest and a potential violation of both national and EU rules governing the use of public funds.

But the rot doesn’t stop there. Inside EKOMED and Creative Greece, the evidence points to more than mere mismanagement — it suggests a coordinated pattern of self-dealing, embezzlement risk, and political cronyism. Public money appears to have been funneled through a closed network of party-linked insiders , under the thin veneer of cultural support.

The core question now is no longer whether there was mismanagement — but whether fraud, abuse of office, and breach of fiduciary duty have occurred. Prosecutors should be looking hard. The smoke is thick. It’s time to find the fire.

The EKOMED board is stacked: four lawyers and a civil engineer — none with any serious background in intellectual property or the audiovisual sector they are meant to oversee. Their real qualification? Loyalty. All four lawyers are linked to the ruling New Democracy party, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis — a regime whose tightening grip on Greece’s media and public funds now echoes Viktor Orbán’s Hungary more than any functioning democracy. Meanwhile, the head of Creative Greece, officially paid €20,000 a month according to the Government Gazette, has repeatedly failed to deliver even basic results. The pattern is clear: a political machine propping up loyalists while Greece’s filmmakers fight for survival.

Tensions Boil Over Between Greece’s Film Community

In Athens, the fragile relationship between Greece’s creative community and its newest cultural institution has snapped. For months — from May 2024 until February 20, 2025, when EKOMED effectively ground to a halt — a cold war had been brewing between Greece’s film and audiovisual industry and the newly minted Hellenic Center for Audiovisual Media and Creation (EKOMED), a creature of the Ministry of Culture. On paper, it was supposed to usher in a new era of opportunity. In reality, it stumbled out of the gate — crippled by dysfunction, trapped in bureaucracy, and bleeding credibility with every missed payment and broken promise. This week, that simmer turned to a full boil. In an extraordinary show of unity and scale, 1,896 artists and creators — including  names such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Costa-Gavras— released an open letter that reads like a collective vote of no-confidence in the institution’s leadership.

Their grievances? Long-standing ones, now laid bare: millions owed under the cash rebate system, backlogged approvals for pending projects (over 100+projects), and a funding pipeline riddled with delays. These aren’t isolated frustrations — they are systemic roadblocks that have been choking Greece’s resurgent film sector for more than a year.

And there’s more. The letter casts a harsh spotlight on the handling of European Union Structural Funds (NSRF) — a vital source of financing for almost all Greek productions, and many foreign ones as well. The signatories describe the fund as “inflexible” and “ill-suited” for the complex realities of modern audiovisual production.

Even sharper is the criticism of mismanagement within EKOMED itself: resources meant to promote Greek cinema abroad squandered; a new headquarters staffed, according to insiders, by officials lacking deep ties to the industry they are tasked to support.

Behind the Numbers: EKOMED’s Smoke and Mirrors as Greece’s Film Debt Crisis Deepens

The numbers sound impressive — at least on paper. According to EKOMED’s latest statement, the much-touted Greek cash rebate scheme has disbursed €148.4 million across 222 projects. Another 173 projects — both Greek and foreign — are locked into the system with legal repayment obligations north of €180 million.

But don’t be fooled. Many of these “commitments” are little more than promissory notes on unfinished productions, including Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, still in post.

And the €100 million debt figure quoted in Variety? Insiders told Kathimerini the true overdue sum is around €40 million — still a staggering number — owed to 35 completed, audited projects that have been left in limbo. “Yes, there were delays,” says EKOMEDE CEO Leonidas Christopoulos, insisting “the issue has been resolved” and payments are on the way. But for producers who’ve heard this song before, the reassurance rings hollow.

The cracks are widening. High-profile cases like Pablo Larraín’s Maria — with €350,000 unpaid, part of a €3.2 million backlog owed to Greek company Heretic — are now embarrassing the country abroad. Another €1.15 million in Heretic projects remain stuck in approval limbo.

EKOMED now scrambles to promise a full online accounting of its obligations, waving the flag of “transparency.” But this is a PR move — and everyone knows it. The industry doesn’t want another spreadsheet. It wants its money.

Warning Lights Are Flashing

And key questions remain unanswered. The new rebate law clearly states that “…funds will be disbursed only if the granting authority possesses the necessary resources.” In other words: there are no guarantees. What happens when a project spends years in production, only to find the money gone when the final paperwork lands?

And what about the Kafkaesque bureaucracy that continues to stall approvals and payments? Have those roadblocks been cleared — or simply buried under new layers of political fog?

Greece has the talent. It has the locations. It has the momentum to be a true global film hub. But unless EKOMED — and the government behind it — stop playing games and start paying their debts, the message to the world will be loud and clear: Greece is open for business — just don’t expect to get paid!

OPEKEPE and EKOMED: Two Agencies, One Rotten System

At first glance, the scandals engulfing Greece’s OPEKEPE (Agricultural Payments Agency) and EKOMED(Hellenic Center for Audiovisual Media and Creation) might seem worlds apart — one tied to EU agricultural subsidies, the other to the glamorous world of film and audiovisual production.

But scratch the surface, and a familiar pattern emerges — a pattern that reveals how Greece’s public agencies have become machines for channeling taxpayer and EU funds into the hands of well-connected insiders.

Both scandals revolve around the same toxic playbook:

Rigged approvals: At OPEKEPE, investigators uncovered phantom farms, fake land declarations, and payments to ghost entities.
At EKOMED, state-subsidized evaluators like Vasilios Kekatos allegedly greenlit their own film projects, while party-linked lawyers and civil engineers sat on boards controlling millions in cultural funds.

Political protection networks: Both agencies show signs of being wrapped in political cronyism. In OPEKEPE’s case, local political networks allegedly shielded fraud rings siphoning off EU agricultural money. At EKOMED and Creative Greece, key positions were reportedly handed to New Democracy party insiders — with no expertise in intellectual property or audiovisual production — enabling a closed system of approvals and payouts.

Opacity and mismanagement: Both OPEKEPE and EKOMEDE operated behind walls of bureaucratic fog — stonewalling journalists and stakeholders, delaying payments, and publishing incomplete or misleading financial data. Producers, farmers, and EU auditors alike were left chasing missing funds and unanswered questions.

Erosion of public trust: Perhaps most damaging of all: both scandals have shredded trust — not just in the agencies involved, but in Greece’s ability to manage EU and public money.
European partners are watching. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is probing OPEKEPE. Meanwhile, international film producers — from Hollywood to Berlin — are already backing away from EKOMED deals amid fears of non-payment.

The Bigger Picture

These are not isolated cases. They point to a deep systemic rot — a culture where public agencies become political fiefdoms, designed less to serve the public than to feed insiders and buy loyalty. From phantom farmland to ghost film funds, the scams vary — but the machinery is the same.

And unless Greece’s political leadership and judiciary confront this system head-on, the country risks far more than scandals. It risks its credibility across Europe — and its future as a trusted place to invest, to create, to build. As one EU official recently warned: “If the same networks are running agriculture, film, and culture — what sector will they poison next?”

An Institution Under Siege

None of these concerns are new — they’ve been reported, whispered, and debated across the industry and media for months. Nor are the responses from EKOMED leadership unexpected: assurances have been issued, timelines promised, solutions “in progress.”

But something fundamental has shifted. The trust, however tentative, that once linked Greece’s creative professionals with the powers that be, has eroded — perhaps beyond repair.

Words will no longer suffice. Only concrete actions, delivered swiftly, can begin to rebuild that fractured relationship. The stakes are not just financial — they are existential for a sector that has, in recent years, punched far above its weight on the global stage.

The Ministry of Culture headed by archaeologist Lina Mendoni, a trusted Kyriakos Mitsotakis collaborator, and EKOMED — now ensconced in a gleaming new headquarters in Kolonaki, in the heart of Athens — face a long and treacherous road ahead. ( Lina Mendoni is no elected politician. You won’t find her name on any ballot from the 2023 elections. An archaeologist by trade, she slipped into government through the side door—as a technocratic appointee, not a public mandate. And here’s the kicker: because she wasn’t elected, she’s not covered by the law that shields ministers with parliamentary immunity. No cloak of protection. No legal firewall. In the chess game of power, that makes her both vulnerable… and expendable)  The signs of dysfunction keep piling up. In a glaring display of amateurism, EKOMED changed its phone numbers — despite legal provisions allowing them to keep the originals. For ten days, production companies trying to reach the agency were met with dead landlines and radio silence, left in the dark about whether the numbers would be restored or replaced. It was a small fiasco, but it spoke volumes: how can an industry reliant on precision and communication trust an institution that can’t even manage to keep its phones working?

For their part, the artists and producers have issued a clear ultimatum: a full course correction must be in place by September 15. If not, they warn, “all options for action remain on the table” — an ominous sign that this clash could escalate further.

SOURCES:

The Odyssey,’ ‘Maria’ Filming Location Greece Hits Troubled Waters Over Ongoing Delays With 40% Cash Rebate

https://variety.com/2025/film/global/the-odyssey-greece-delays-cash-rebate-1236400655:

The initiative “Cinema in Greece – Zero Visibility”, signed by 1896 professionals in the audiovisual sector, requests from the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Culture and the competent body EKKOMED, ​​an immediate solution to the financial problems that have arisen for their survival.

https://flix.gr/news/oratotis-miden-apanta-sto-ekkomed.html

https://www.news247.gr/politismos/cinema/i-ellada-stin-teleftaia-thesi-tis-evropis-i-apantisi-ston-ekkomed-gia-ta-xrei/

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