Photo courtesy from Film Director Ioannis Papaloizou from his documentary Waves Won't Stop (2025)
20th Los Angeles Greek Film Festival
1st LAGFF Doc Fest
January 30 - February 1 2026
LMU Greek Cinema Weekend: 1st LAGFF Documentary Festival
Host: Prof. Katerina Zacharia
Q&A with invited guests followed the film screenings
Our long-term community partner, the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival is celebrating its 20th year in 2026 and launched the 1st LAGFF Documentary Film festival.
The LMU Classics & Archaeology department celebrates 25 years of Greek Cinema at LMU. The LMU Greek Cinema Week is a scholarly inquiry into Greek Cinema with an emphasis on contemporary issues and the discipline of Classics. The film screenings are supported by students in Prof. Zacharia’s course on Representations of Greece: Ancient and Modern.
The LMU Classics & Archaeology department values our 10-year LMU-LAGFF community partnership, which offers supervised internships administrated by Prof. Zacharia, LAGFF Director of Education, to LMU students. Over 220 LMU students have interned with LAGFF acquiring first-hand experience in several aspects of film festival production, such as programming, industry labs, event production, videography, interviewing filmmakers, film reviewing, and more. In addition, at least 135 students have attended the Greek cinema summer courses and wrote essays on the LAGFF films, while over 15 SFTV faculty have served as LAGFF jurors since 2014. We are thankful to the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival for our invaluable partnership and collaboration in both the LMU-LAGFF internship program, the LMU Greek Cinema Week, and the 1st LAGFF Documentary Festival.
Beginning in 2026, BCLA-Classics & Archaeology selects and awards the LMU Prize for Social Justice to the best LAGFF feature documentary, the best feature fiction film, and the best fiction short film. The fiction short film is selected by the students in Prof. Zacharia’s courses. The best feature films for this award is selected by the LAGFF jury and Prof. Zacharia. At the LAGFF closing ceremony, Prof. Zacharia presents the award.
Professor Katerina Zacharia’s remarks can be read in full in Opening Remarks and Inaugural LMU Prize for Social Justice Remarks (PDF).
Screenings
- Friday 1/30, 2:00-9:30pm @ The Jim Gianopulos Family Theater at the Huffington Center, 1324 Normandie Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006
- Saturday 1/31, 11:00am-8:30pm @ LMU’s Broccoli Theater
- Sunday 2/1, 11:30am-7:30pm @ LMU’s Broccoli Theater
Awards
- Sunday 2/1, 7:30-8:30pm @ LMU’s Broccoli Theater
- Closing reception, 8:30-9:30pm @ LMU Collins Center
The event was free for LMU Faculty and students. Members outside the LMU community purchased tickets directly from LAGFF.
For more information about the Greek Cinema week series, please contact: katerina.zacharia@lmu.edu
Sponsored by the LMU Department of Classics & Archaeology and the Dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
