Movies Filmed in Greece

Movies filmed in Greece span islands, ports and mainland coasts. Trips through the country run as outings with a host. Titles here include Mamma Mia! on Skopelos, Zorba the Greek on Crete and The Guns of Navarone on Rhodes. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin belongs to Cephalonia, and Before Midnight belongs to the Peloponnese coast. Related reading covers Greek islands near Athens, the best Greek islands and Villages in Greece. More ideas sit under Greece tours.

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What are the movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece are features and shorts made on Greek soil, from newsreels to modern festival winners. Foreign productions such as Mamma Mia! used Skopelos, and Glass Onion used Spetses. Greek productions include Zorba the Greek, which won three Academy Awards.

Athens audiences watched their first short reels in the spring of 1897. Greek cinema itself dates from 1906, the year the Manakis brothers began recording in Macedonia. A French filmmaker known as Leons made the first newsreel, or short news film, at the Athens games. Among movies filmed in Greece, these reels came before any full-length story.

Kostas Bachatoris presented Golfo in 1911, a traditional love story counted as the first Greek feature film. A feature is a full-length story film. Movies filmed in Greece reached a golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. More than sixty titles appeared each year. Michael Cacoyannis helped launch it with Stella in 1955, screened at Cannes.

Theo Angelopoulos led a revival after the mid-1970s, with The Travelling Players in 1975. His Voyage to Cythera followed in 1984. His Eternity and a Day took the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes, in 1998. Its main character leaves a seaside flat in Thessaloniki, a city in northern Greece.

• Festival: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival began in 1960 and shows Greek and foreign titles.
• Prize: That festival hands its Golden Alexander to the best feature film on the programme.
• Box office: A Touch of Spice by Tasos Boulmetis led the Greek box office in 2003.

Movies filmed in Greece gained fresh attention through the Greek Weird Wave, a label for recent local work. Festivals in Wrocław in Poland and Jeonju in Korea held tributes to this generation. Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos won a section prize at Cannes in 2009.

Which islands did Mamma Mia! add to the movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece include Mamma Mia!, the 2008 musical comedy directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Cameras rolled on Skopelos between August and September 2007. The story follows Sophie, a young bride whose wedding guest list holds three men. Any one of them is possibly her real father.

Outdoor scenes came mainly from two small islands, Skopelos and Skiathos, in the region of Thessaly. Among movies filmed in Greece, this one also used Damouchari, a seaside hamlet in the Pelion area. A hamlet is a settlement smaller than a village. The main beach site lay on Skopelos, at Kastani on the southwest coast.

At Kastani, the producers put up a beach bar and a jetty. Both set pieces were taken away when the shoot ended. A jetty is a low platform running out over the water. The Agios Ioannis chapel near Glossa supplied the setting for the wedding procession. A chapel is a modest building for Christian prayer.

Studio work shaped this entry on the list of movies filmed in Greece. A full set of Donna’s Greek villa went up on a studio stage. The bulk of the filming happened there. Sam’s dash from a New York office was shot in the City of London. Sam is the role played by Pierce Brosnan.

• Cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried and Julie Walters lead the ensemble.
• Music: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, two members of ABBA, composed the score for the film.
• Origin: Catherine Johnson wrote the screenplay from her own book for the 1999 stage musical.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this title premiered in Leicester Square, London, on June 30, 2008. Release in the United Kingdom followed on July 10. A sequel reached cinemas on July 20, 2018, and brought back much of the cast.

Where does Zorba the Greek sit among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece count Zorba the Greek among their Cretan titles. Michael Cacoyannis, a Greek Cypriot filmmaker, wrote, produced, edited and directed this 1964 drama. Anthony Quinn plays Zorba, and Alan Bates plays Basil, a reserved young writer from a British upbringing.

This entry in the movies filmed in Greece was recorded in black and white across Crete. Scenes came from the city of Chania and from Kokkino Chorio, a village in the Apokoronas region. Stavros Beach on the Akrotiri peninsula completed the main list. A peninsula is a headland pushing far out into open water.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this sirtaki scene was shot on the beach at Stavros. The sirtaki is a Greek folk dance, and Quinn’s performance made it popular. Basil first meets Zorba at Piraeus, the port of Athens, while waiting to travel to Crete. Basil is a writer raised in the United Kingdom.

The plot follows a scheme to run a lignite mine beside a poor Cretan village. Lignite is a soft brown coal. Zorba himself is a fictional version of George Zorbas, a real mine worker born in 1867. Simone Signoret started filming as Madame Hortense, and Lila Kedrova then took over the part.

• Novel: Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the 1946 book that gave Cacoyannis his story.
• Music: Mikis Theodorakis composed the musical score for this drama set on Crete.
• Stage: The film and its source novel later became a stage musical that won a Tony award.

At the 37th Academy Awards, this entry among movies filmed in Greece took three prizes. Kedrova won Best Supporting Actress, and the film also won for cinematography and art direction. Cinematography means the work of filming, including light and camera choices.

How did The Guns of Navarone come to join the movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece took on a wartime adventure with The Guns of Navarone, released in 1961. J. Lee Thompson directed it, and Carl Foreman wrote and produced it. Rhodes supplied the Greek locations, and the crew stayed there in 1960.

The film unit made Rhodes its base from April to July 1960. A unit is the working team on a shoot. Further scenes came from Gozo, an island of Malta, and from Tino in the Ligurian Sea. Among movies filmed in Greece, the Rhodes stay also left a place name on the map.

Anthony Quinn liked the area so much that he bought land nearby. The local government later gave him more land, as thanks for making the island famous. The spot now carries the name Anthony Quinn Bay. Greek royals came to the set when the Mandrakos cafe scene was shot, and they appear as extras.

This story among movies filmed in Greece sends Allied commandos against a German fortress in the Aegean. A commando is a soldier trained for raids. Navarone itself is a fictional island, although a map in the film shows the real island of Antikythera. Alistair MacLean wrote the 1957 novel behind the script. The Battle of Leros inspired that book.

• Cast: Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck and David Niven head a cast that also includes Irene Papas.
• Music: Dimitri Tiomkin wrote the score, which won the Golden Globe for best original score.
• Earnings: The film ranked as the second top-grossing title of 1961 in cinemas.

This title among movies filmed in Greece earned six nominations at the 34th Academy Awards. They included Best Picture and Best Director. It took the prize for Best Special Effects. Special effects are scenes built with models, explosions or camera tricks.

Which island gave Captain Corelli’s Mandolin its place among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece turned to Cephalonia for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, directed by John Madden. This war film came out in 2001. Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz play the two leads. Cephalonia belongs to the Ionian Islands of Greece.

The crew worked mainly in Argostoli, in Sami and on Antisamos Beach. The shoot helped raise the profile of Cephalonia. The village of Farsa near Argostoli is believed to have inspired the novel. Among movies filmed in Greece, this one is also mainly set on its filming island.

The film honours thousands of Italian soldiers executed at the Massacre of the Acqui Division in September 1943. It also remembers the people of Cephalonia killed in the 1953 Ionian earthquake. A division is a large army unit. Captain Antonio Corelli is an officer of that force, the 33rd Acqui Infantry Division.

This romance among movies filmed in Greece gives Corelli a passion for the mandolin, a stringed instrument. Pelagia, the daughter of the village doctor, slowly warms to him. Her fiancé, Mandras, is a local fisherman who leaves for the war on the mainland. An earthquake later destroys much of the village in the story.

• Author: Louis de Bernières wrote the 1994 novel that supplied the story and its title.
• Training: Cage was no musician, so he learned the mandolin for the role.
• Scenes: In every scene with Corelli at the instrument, Cage himself plays the mandolin.

Movies filmed in Greece gained this title through producer Kevin Loader. He bought the novel in autumn 1994 and wanted to adapt it. Critic Derek Elley praised the on-location shoot, though he faulted the drama. The film opened at number six at the American box office.

What coast sets Before Midnight apart from other movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece moved to the Peloponnese coast for Before Midnight, a 2013 romantic drama. Richard Linklater directed it, with filming entirely on that southern shore. Jesse and Céline spend a summer break in Greece with their children.

Cameras started rolling in August 2012. Reports from Messenia in the same month said the film was being shot there. Messenia is a region of the southern Peloponnese. Among movies filmed in Greece, this shoot also took in a house with a literary past. The crew worked at the Kardamyli home once owned by the author Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Linklater wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who also play the couple. The plot stays small, and long conversations between the characters fill much of the screen time. A screenplay is the written script of a film. Jesse works as a successful novelist, while Céline stands at a career crossroads.

This entry among movies filmed in Greece is the third and last part of the Before trilogy. Before Sunrise came out in 1995, and Before Sunset followed in 2004. A trilogy tells one larger story across three works. The story opens when Hank, Jesse’s teenage son, flies home to Chicago after the Greek holiday.

• Premiere: The Sundance Film Festival hosted the first screening on January 20, 2013.
• Berlin: Its international premiere took place out of competition at the 63rd Berlin festival.
• Award: The film earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this title became the highest earner of its trilogy. Friends pay for a hotel room for the couple, and a fierce argument breaks out there. Jesse and Céline make peace at the outdoor restaurant of that hotel.

How does Never on Sunday, set in Piraeus, sit beside movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece share a national cinema with Never on Sunday, a 1960 Greek romantic comedy. It is set in Piraeus, the Athens port. Jules Dassin wrote and directed it, and also stars as Homer. Melina Mercouri plays Ilya, a free-spirited woman there.

Beside movies filmed in Greece, the plot of this title pairs her with Homer Thrace, an American scholar. He tries to teach Ilya classical subjects, while she tries to make him relax. The two go to a performance of the ancient play Medea and read it in opposite ways.

For readers comparing movies filmed in Greece, this title has a bouzouki theme that became a hit. A bouzouki is a Greek stringed instrument with a long neck. Manos Hadjidakis wrote the song, which took the Oscar for Best Original Song. Its port setting appears when Ilya hears the whistle of an arriving ship.

Mercouri won Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. Academy nominations followed for her, for Dassin as director and writer, and for the costumes. Cannes is a French city that hosts a major film festival. Mercouri met Dassin at Cannes while attending a screening of Stella, and the two later married.

• Stage: Dassin and Mercouri turned the film into a Broadway musical called Illya Darling.
• Tony: Mercouri was nominated for a Tony Award for her lead role in that musical.
• Move: Dassin, an American director, moved to France and later to Greece to continue working.

Movies filmed in Greece gained public backing through Mercouri herself. She became Minister for Culture in 1981, when the Panhellenic Socialist Movement came to power. In that post she secured government support for the Greek film industry and promoted Greek cinema abroad.

Which Amorgos bay links The Big Blue to movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece include The Big Blue, a diving drama from Luc Besson. Its listed locations on Amorgos take in Kalotaritissa bay. Amorgos is an island of the Cyclades, the Greek group in the Aegean. The story sets Jacques against Enzo, a world champion freediver.

On Amorgos in boyhood, Enzo dares Jacques to collect a coin from the sea floor. A freediver dives deep while holding one breath, without an air tank. By the 1980s, both men have fame for their skill in the water. Jacques works with dolphins as a research subject.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this one draws on real divers. Jacques Mayol lived from 1927 to 2001 and helped write the screenplay himself. Both he and Enzo Maiorca set deep diving records below 100 metres. Neither reached the 120 metres shown on screen, and they were never direct rivals.

The soundtrack of this entry in movies filmed in Greece came from Éric Serra, the regular Besson composer. The American release was recut with a simpler happy ending. Bill Conti wrote a new score for that version, replacing the music by Serra. Besson later issued a longer DVD cut, with the first ending and more of the Serra score.

• Prizes: The film won César Awards for Best Music and Best Sound in 1989.
• Contest: The World Diving Championships in the story take place at Taormina in Sicily.
• Romance: Rosanna Arquette plays Johana Baker, the girlfriend of Jacques in the film.

As one of the movies filmed in Greece, this title split audiences by continent. It found popularity in Europe and failed commercially in North America. Critics both praised and faulted its long underwater scenes. French president Jacques Chirac cited the film when he described Mayol.

How does The Cradle of Life use Santorini among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece include The Cradle of Life, the 2003 Lara Croft adventure by Jan de Bont. Santorini opens the story, when a powerful quake exposes the Luna Temple. Angelina Jolie stars as Lara Croft, a treasure-hunting archaeologist.

Beyond Santorini, this title among movies filmed in Greece used Hong Kong, Kenya and Llyn Gwynant in Wales. Llyn Gwynant stood in for mainland China. The rest of the picture came from soundstages in the United Kingdom. A soundstage is a large, quiet building for indoor filming. One Shanghai scene was also shot on a set.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this plot gives Santorini an imagined link to Alexander the Great. In the story, he built the Luna Temple to hold his finest treasures. Inside sits a glowing orb carrying a pattern that resembles a code. Lara and her group find it, then lose it to the Lo brothers, two crime lords.

The wider quest turns on Pandora’s box, which legend says holds a deadly plague. Lara sets out to save it, helped by a former Marine turned mercenary. Gerard Butler and Ciarán Hinds appear in supporting parts. A mercenary is a hired fighter paid by whoever employs him. This sequel follows the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

• Origin: The film takes its heroine from the Tomb Raider video game series.
• Release: The film reached cinemas in the United States on July 25, 2003.
• Reception: Critics rated it above the first film, mainly for its action sequences.

Plans for a third film collapsed after Jolie chose to leave the role. A reboot, simply titled Tomb Raider, followed in 2018 with Alicia Vikander in the role. Santorini also hosted other movies filmed in Greece, including Summer Lovers in 1982.

How did Mykonos bring Shirley Valentine into the movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece took a British comedy to Mykonos with Shirley Valentine, directed by Lewis Gilbert. This 1989 title follows a bored Liverpool housewife who leaves home for a Greek holiday. Pauline Collins plays Shirley, and Tom Conti plays Costas.

The Greek scenes were shot on the island of Mykonos. English scenes came from Liverpool, Twickenham, Oxford Circus, Bloomsbury and St Pancras railway station. Among movies filmed in Greece, this title splits its shoot between two countries. Shirley’s friend Jane wins a trip for two to Greece, which sets the journey in motion.

For the script, this entry in movies filmed in Greece drew on Willy Russell’s 1986 one-character play. Pauline Collins had already played Shirley on stage in London and on Broadway. A one-character play has a single actor speaking throughout. Holidaymakers around her want British food, while Shirley comes to enjoy Greece itself.

Costas owns a nearby tavern, which is a small Greek eating house. He helps Shirley drink wine by the sea in the land where the grapes grew. He also invites her to tour the nearby islands on his brother’s boat. At the airport she turns back and walks to his tavern, asking for a job.

• Song: Marvin Hamlisch and Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the theme, The Girl Who Used to Be Me.
• Festival: The film opened the Montreal World Film Festival on 24 August 1989.
• Earnings: It was the highest-grossing independent British film of its release year.

Joe, her husband, finally travels out from England and walks past her without recognising her. Shirley calls him back, wearing sunglasses and sipping wine at sunset. Among movies filmed in Greece, this one closes with husband and wife sharing wine beside the water.

What first did Boy on a Dolphin bring to the movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece gained their first Hollywood title with Boy on a Dolphin. Jean Negulesco directed this 1957 romantic adventure, shot largely around the Saronic Islands, notably Hydra. Sophia Loren made her English-language debut in the film.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this title adds establishing shots of Athens, Rhodes and Delos. Such shots are wide views that set the scene. One scene uses the Orthodox monastery complex at Metéora. A later James Bond film used the same complex as a location. Interior shots were partly done in Rome.

The plot makes Phaedra a poor sponge diver on Hydra. A sponge diver brings up natural sponges from the sea bed. On the floor of the Aegean, she comes across an ancient statue showing a boy astride a dolphin. In the plot, it has been missing for around 2000 years.

Two rival buyers appear in this story among movies filmed in Greece. Dr James Calder, played by Alan Ladd, is an honest archaeologist. Victor Parmalee, played by Clifton Webb, is a dealer with no scruples. An archaeologist learns about past peoples from the things they left behind. Webb caught pneumonia on the shoot, and he later sponsored two Greek children.

• Music: Hugo Friedhofer’s score received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music in 1958.
• Song: Julie London sings the theme song over the underwater title sequence.
• Height: Ladd stood on a box for scenes, because Loren was the taller star.

This entry in movies filmed in Greece had its world premiere in New York on 10 April 1957. The evening raised money for a fund that helped Greek orphans, named for Queen Frederika. David Divine wrote the 1955 novel behind the script.

Which Dodecanese island hosted Mediterraneo among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece reached Kastellórizo, an island of the Dodecanese, with Mediterraneo. Gabriele Salvatores directed this 1991 Italian war comedy-drama. The Dodecanese is a chain of Greek islands in the Aegean. Academy voters named it Best Foreign Language Film in 1992.

This title among movies filmed in Greece opens its story in 1941. A small group of Italian soldiers then reaches Megisti for lookout duty. Megisti is the official name of Kastellórizo. They find a town with no people at first. The villagers had hidden, and they return once they see the soldiers are harmless.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this plot has a priest asking a lieutenant to restore church murals. The lieutenant is an amateur painter, and a mural is a wall painting. Sergeant Lo Russo, the one man keen for war, takes up folk dancing. A former ski teacher arrives with his beloved donkey Silvana.

Private Farina, the shyest soldier, falls in love with Vasilissa, a local woman. The two marry and stay behind to open a restaurant, her long-held dream. Three of the men come back to the island as old men. Enzo Monteleone based the script loosely on Sagapò, a 1954 novel by Renzo Biasion.

• Catchphrase: The line One face, one race comes back throughout the story on screen.
• Cast: Diego Abatantuono plays Sergeant Lo Russo, and Claudio Bigagli plays Lieutenant Montini.
• Release: Italian cinemas received the film on 31 January 1991, before Toronto later that year.

Historians have discussed this entry in movies filmed in Greece in debates on Italian wartime memory. Italiani brava gente is the popular belief that Italian soldiers behaved with humanity during the war. Mediterraneo was the Italian entry for the Academy Award in November 1991.

What beach gave Triangle of Sadness its place among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece took on satire with Triangle of Sadness, the 2022 black comedy by Ruben Östlund. Cameras worked at Chiliadou Beach in Euboea, a Greek island. It follows a celebrity couple on a luxury cruise who end up stranded.

Shooting was due to start in Sweden and Greece on 19 February 2020. The pandemic paused production on 26 March, with about 37% of the shooting done. Work resumed on 18 September for the last stretch in Greece. Filming ended on 13 November 2020. This title among movies filmed in Greece also used other Greek islands.

A black comedy draws humour from dark or painful subjects. Östlund wrote and directed the film as his first English-language feature. Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean play the couple, in what was her final film role. Woody Harrelson and Dolly de Leon also appear in the ensemble. Casting weighed about 120 actors for the part that went to Dickinson.

The title of this entry among movies filmed in Greece comes from a term used by plastic surgeons. It means the worry wrinkle between the eyebrows. Östlund announced the project in June 2017, soon after The Square won the Palme d’Or. The actors report up to 23 takes per scene.

• Cannes: The 75th Cannes Film Festival gave the film its first screening and its Palme d’Or.
• Oscars: Academy voters nominated it for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
• Europe: The 35th European Film Awards named it Best Film and also honoured its director and screenwriter.

Among movies filmed in Greece, this one logged its health tests during the shoot. Östlund reports 1,061 COVID-19 tests across the shoot, and every result came back negative. Editing began during the first lockdown in 2020. Studio scenes used stages in Trollhättan, Sweden.

How did Spetses shape Glass Onion among movies filmed in Greece?

Movies filmed in Greece added a modern whodunnit with Glass Onion, the 2022 mystery by Rian Johnson. A whodunnit is a story about finding a killer. Cameras started on Spetses, a Greek island, on June 28, 2021. Daniel Craig returns as the detective Benoit Blanc.

Johnson also found a villa in Porto Heli and made it a major filming site. The same house served as home for the cast and their families during the shoot. Johnson compared the work to a summer holiday that also produced a film. The shoot left Greece on July 30 for Belgrade, where interiors and New York scenes followed.

Johnson wrote the script in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Greek setting grew out of his wish to travel abroad when international trips had stopped. Among movies filmed in Greece, this title follows classic holiday mysteries. He looked to Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile and The Last of Sheila.

The host in this entry among movies filmed in Greece is Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton. Bron is a tech billionaire, a person with vast wealth from technology. He invites friends to a murder mystery game at his private island home in Greece. Invitations arrive inside intricate puzzle boxes, which have to be solved.

• Series: The film is a standalone sequel to Knives Out, which came out in 2019.
• Cast: Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn and Dave Bautista join the ensemble around Craig.
• Crew: Steve Yedlin returned as cinematographer, and Nathan Johnson returned as composer.

Work on this entry among movies filmed in Greece ended officially on September 13, 2021. The title refers to the mansion of Bron, which he calls the Glass Onion. The Toronto festival gave the film its world premiere on September 10, 2022.

What do travellers ask about movies filmed in Greece, and what are the answers?

Movies filmed in Greece include The Lost Daughter, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Attenberg and Summer Lovers. These four titles used the islands of Spetses and Santorini, plus the town of Aspra Spitia. Aspra Spitia lies in Boeotia, a region of Greece.

Among movies filmed in Greece, which drama used Spetses for its main shoot?

The Lost Daughter, a 2021 drama written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, shot its principal scenes on Spetses. Cameras worked there from September 28 to October 31, 2020. Gyllenhaal won the Best Screenplay award when the film opened at the 78th Venice festival. A screenplay is a film script, written before the shoot begins.

Which of the movies filmed in Greece follows a teenager to Santorini?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a 2005 comedy-drama directed by Ken Kwapis, began filming on Santorini. Work then moved on to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. In the story, Lena spends her summer with her grandparents on the island, apart from her three friends. A comedy-drama mixes humour with serious moments.

Which mainland town do movies filmed in Greece reach through Attenberg?

Attenberg is a 2010 Greek drama written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. It was shot in Aspra Spitia, a town in the Greek region of Boeotia. Ariane Labed won the Volpi Cup for best actress at the 67th Venice festival. The Volpi Cup is the acting prize of that festival.

What link to archaeology do movies filmed in Greece gain through Summer Lovers?

Summer Lovers, written and directed by Randal Kleiser, was shot largely on Santorini from August to October 1981. Its makers secured permission to film at Akrotiri, an archaeological site on the island. Valérie Quennessen, who plays an archaeologist, worked at the site under the instruction of a real one.

Featured photo: Sztudva Gyöngyi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (File:Antisamos – panoramio (1).jpg).