MUSES FILM AWARDS LEVADIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Exposure and Recognition: Our Film festival provides a platform for filmmakers to showcase their work to a diverse audience, including industry professionals, critics, and fellow filmmakers. This exposure can lead to recognition, awards, and potential opportunities for wider distribution.
Networking Opportunities: Filmmakers have the chance to network with other industry professionals such as producers, distributors, actors, and fellow filmmakers. Building these connections can open doors to collaborations, funding opportunities, and future projects.
Feedback and Critique: Screenings at our film festival allow filmmakers to receive valuable feedback from audiences and industry experts. This feedback can help them improve their craft, understand audience reactions, and refine their storytelling techniques.
Distribution Deals: Our Film festival serves as a marketplace where filmmakers can attract the attention of distributors looking for new content. Securing distribution deals at festivals can lead to wider releases in theaters or on digital platforms.
Press Coverage: Our Festival often generates media coverage that can help promote filmmakers and their work. Positive reviews, interviews, and press mentions from festival screenings can enhance a filmmaker’s reputation and visibility in the industry.
Industry Insights: Attending our film festival provides filmmakers with insights into current trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in the film industry. Panels, workshops, and Q&A sessions offer educational opportunities to learn from experienced professionals.
Validation and Prestige: Selection or awards at our prestigious film festival can validate a filmmaker’s talent and creativity. Being associated with renowned festivals adds prestige to their work and enhances their credibility in the industry.
Audience Engagement: Interacting with audiences during screenings or Q&A sessions allows filmmakers to connect directly with viewers, understand their reactions, and build a loyal fan base for future projects.
Creative Inspiration: Exposure to diverse films from around the world at our festival can inspire filmmakers creatively, introducing them to new storytelling techniques, visual styles, and thematic approaches.
Career Development: Participation in our film festival can boost a filmmaker’s career by increasing visibility, building a portfolio of festival selections or awards, and establishing a reputation within the industry.
Our Historical tour offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the past and explore the rich cultural heritage of the region of Greater Livadia. The guided tour can be a fantastic way to experience the place of the Festival, particularly when exploring the ancient and medieval historical sites & monuments.

THE FACTS

All Trophies for All Winners in All categories are absolutely FREE of charge

No extra cost at all physical presence is required though

* LIFF (Muses Film Awards) is a real institution of private initiative, with serious private supporters, under the auspices and support of Greek Official Municipal & Regional as well as State Authorities. ‘Levadia International Film Festival’ (aka Muses Film Awards) is an annual three days event full of daily Screenings, Showcases, Workshops, Seminars, Historical tour VIP Gala, Red Carpet & Award Ceremony, and After Party. It takes place in the historical city of Livadia aka Levadia (Boeotia, central Greece) in a valley between the mythical mountains of Parnassos and Helicon, where the world-famous primordial 9 Muses, in an artistic company together with God Apollo, filled the Greater area of the historical city of Livadia, with sounds, images, dance, knowledge, literature, science, poetry, astronomy and of course all the arts.

The city of Livadia, capital of the Boeotia Region, is just an hour and a half from Athens, the capital of Greece,15 minutes from ‘Lion of Chaeronea’, 20 minutes form historical Thiebes, and 45 minutes from the ‘Oracle of Delphi’, which is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in having had a great influence in the ancient world, as evidenced by the various monuments built there by most of the important ancient Greek city-states, demonstrating their fundamental Hellenic unity . In Uptown Livadia lies the ancient Oracle of Trophonius Zeus, The Temple of King-God Zeus, and the Medieval Castle and its stone bridges over the ancient River of Erkyna.Here on our official website you will find the right places for accomodation 5-10 minurtes walking distance to the venues & sightseeings (cinemas & Award Ceremony Venue, and historical points).

NO ONE HAS TO PAY FOR TROPHY

ALL WINNERS WILL PRESENTED WITH TROPHY

* Winners of all categories will Never need to purchase their trophy. All winners of all categories will receive their award certificate at the award ceremony, accompanied by the corresponding official trophy, without any additional financial burden of purchase. This is a film festival of absolute quality and integrity of solid foundations. All winners will be announced during the awards ceremony – Red Carpet. All award nominees are required to be physically present at the three-day festival to receive the Award and Trophy themselves. in case the nominees cannot attend the event, they must send an official representative in order to receive their award & trophy. Those unable to come in person or unable to send any representative to the festival, they will recieve only the laurels & certificate via email. Not the trophy though

HISTORY

Nine Muses, Helicon Mountain, Trophonius Oracle, Lion Of Chaeronea, & Levadia (aka Livadia or Livadeia)

* The nine Muses, In Greek mythology, are goddesses of the various arts such as music, dance, and poetry. Blessed with wonderful artistic talents, they also possess great beauty, grace, and allure. Their gifts of song, dance, and joy helped the gods and mankind to forget their troubles and inspired musicians and writers to reach ever greater artistic and intellectual heights.

The Muses are the daughters of Zeus and the Titan Mnemosyne (Memory) after the couple slept together for nine consecutive nights. In Greco-Roman religion and mythology, any of a group of sister goddesses of obscure but ancient origin, the chief centre of whose cult was Mount Helicon and Mount Parnassus in Boeotia, Greece. They haunted the wells, springs and fountains of these rocky summits, which were sacred to them and to poetic inspiration.

The nine muses are:

Calliope, traditionally the most important (beautiful-voiced and representing epic poetry and also rhetoric),
Clio (glorifying and representing history),
Erato (lovely and representing singing),
Euterpe (well-delighting and representing lyric poetry),
Melpomene (singing and representing tragedy),
Polymnia (many hymning and representing hymns to the gods and heroes),
Terpsichore or Stesichore (delighting in dance),
Thalia (blooming and representing comedy),
Urania (heavenly and representing astronomy).

* Helicon Mountain is a sacred site in Greek mythology, said to have been favoured by the nine Muses – the inspirational goddesses of the arts – who shared their divine gifts with mortals. It is the location of the Hippocrene spring which, in legend, is a source of poetic inspiration.

In Greek mythology, two springs sacred to the Muses were located here: the Aganippe and the Hippocrene, both of which bear “horse” (ἵππος híppos) in their names. In a related myth, the Hippocrene spring was created when the winged horse Pegasus aimed his hoof at a rock, striking it with such force that the spring burst from the spot. On Mount Helicon too was the spring where Narcissus was inspired by his own beauty. Mount Helicon and the Hippocrene spring were considered to be a source of poetic inspiration. In the late seventh century BCE, the poet Hesiod placed a reference to the Muses on the Helicon at the very beginning of his Theogony.

* The Oracle of Trophonius was one of the four Oracles associated with Apollo, and probably the most dangerous of the quartet. The Trophonius Oracle was a renowned ancient Greek oracle located near the town of Levadeia (Livadia) in Boeotia, Greece. It was dedicated to Trophonius, a figure who was transformed into an oracular demigod after being swallowed up by the earth. The oracle was known for its unique rituals and the experience of consulting it, which often involved descending into a cave associated with Trophonius.The oracle of Trophonius was, as Philostratus notes, “the only oracle which gives responses through the person himself who consults it.” At all the others of Greece — Delphi, Dodona, Corinth — the visitor would address his questions to a priestess, who would then consult the god on his behalf and deliver its response. Not so Trophonius, which requires a by all accounts harrowing descent into the underworld that might last for days. The Oracle of Trophonius was associated with Apollo and known for its dark and harrowing rituals. The petitioner seeking guidance from this oracle would undergo a terrifying experience in the Cave of Trophonius, where they would face untold horrors to receive a prophecy in the form of nightmarish verse. The process involved drinking from both the Fountain of Memory and the Fountain of Forgetfulness before entering the cave, which was believed to prepare the mind for the ordeal. If the petitioner survived and emerged from the cave without being driven insane or dead, they would sit on the Throne of Memory to recite the prophecy subconsciously.

* The Lion of Chaeronea is a monumental feline statue that serves as a war memorial commemorating fallen soldiers from various historical battles that took place in the region. The most notable battle associated with the Lion of Chaeronea is the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C., where forces led by Philip II of Macedon emerged victorious over a coalition of Greek city-states, including Thebes and Athens. This battle marked a significant turning point in ancient Greek history, solidifying Macedonian hegemony in Greece and effectively ending resistance to Philip’s rule in the region.

The lion monument itself was erected after the Battle of Chaeronea to honor the fallen soldiers, particularly those from Thebes who were part of the elite military unit known as “The Sacred Band.” Archaeological excavations near the monument uncovered a mass grave containing 254 individuals believed to be members of The Sacred Band, further emphasizing the historical significance of this site.

* Levadia, In antiquity, was a town near the western frontier of ancient Boeotia, described by Strabo as lying between Mount Helicon and Chaeroneia. The ancient town was situated at the foot of a precipitous height, which is an abrupt northerly termination of Mt. Helicon. Pausanias relates that this height was originally occupied by the Homeric city of Mideia, from where the inhabitants, under the conduct of Lebadus, an Athenian, migrated into the plain, and founded there the city named after him. On the other hand, Strabo maintains that the Homeric cities Arne and Mideia were both swallowed up by Lake Copais. Levadia was originally an insignificant place, but it rose into importance in consequence of its possessing the celebrated oracle of Trophonius. The oracle was consulted both by Croesus and by Mardonius, and it continued to be consulted even in the time of Plutarch, when all the other oracles in Boeotia had become dumb. Pausanias himself consulted the oracle, and he speaks of the town in terms which show that it was in his time the most flourishing place in Boeotia. Notwithstanding the sanctity of the oracle, Lebadeia did not always escape the ravages of war. It was taken and plundered both by Lysander and by Archelaus, the general of Mithridates VI of Pontus. In the war against Perseus of Macedon, it espoused the side of the Romans, while Thebes, Haliartus, and Coroneia declared in favour of the Macedonian king.

When Pausanias visited Lebadeia in the 2nd century, he recorded numerous temples. The most remarkable object in the grove of Trophonius was the temple of the hero, containing his statue by Praxiteles, resembling a statue of Asclepius; a temple of Demeter, surnamed Europe; a statue of Zeus Hyetius (Pluvius) in the open air; and higher up, upon the mountain, the oracle (τὸ μαντεῖον). Still higher up was the hunting place of Persephone; a large unfinished temple of Zeus Basileus, a temple of Apollo, and another temple, containing statues of Cronus, Zeus, and Hera. Pausanias likewise mentions a chapel of the Good Daemon and of Good Fortune, where those who were going to consult the oracle first passed a certain number of days. During the Byzantine period, Livadeia entered a period of decline, except for the 9th century, when some economic growth occurred. During the Frankish period Livadeia came back on track, then in the 14th century it came under the control of the Catalan Company. The Ottoman domination began in 1458, when economic and administrative privileges granted to residents contribute to industry and trade. The city broke free of the Ottomans as a result of the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s.