The Palace (2011 film)

The Palace
Directed by Anthony Maras
Produced by Anthony Maras
Kate Croser
Andros Achilleas
Written by Anthony Maras
Starring Erol Afşin
Kevork Malikyan
Tamer Arslan
Daphne Alexander
Christopher Greco
Music by Argyro Christodoulides
Cinematography Nick Matthews
Edited by Anthony Maras
Country Template:Film Cyprus / Australia
Language Turkish, Greek

The Palace is a 2011 Cypriot-Australian short film co-production, written and directed by Anthony Maras, that enjoyed its international premiere at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival and won 'Best Short Fiction Film' and 'Best Screenplay in a Short Film' in the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

The Palace also won top honors at a number of other film festivals and awards ceremonies including the 2012 Beverly Hills Film Festival, 2011 Sydney Film Festival (Best Short Fiction Film), 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival (Best Australian Short Film), 2012 Flickerfest International Festival of Short Films (Best Australian Short Film) and the 2011 Adelaide Film Festival (Best Short Film - Audience Award). Filmmaker Anthony Maras won the 2011 AFTRS IF Award for Rising Talent on the strength of this film and others.

The Palace was produced by AntHouse Films, Cyan Films and SeaHorse Films, as an Australia-Cyprus co-production.

Reception

The Palace has received strong critical and audience acclaim.

At the 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival Morgan Spurlock, the Academy Award Nominated Director of Super Size Me, declared The Palace “One of the best short films I’ve ever seen..”.[1]

Box Office Magazine's Pete Hammond commented "'The Palace' is riveting, suspenseful first class filmmaking. In just its short running time it manages to be every bit as accomplished, compelling and provocative as any full-length feature. 'The Palace' marks the emergence of a major filmmaker in Anthony Maras."

Peter Krausz, Chair of the Australian Film Critics Association, concluded his review after also seeing the film at the Melbourne International Film Festival ”This is pure film-making to the highest degree..”[2]

Cine Outsider's Timothy E. Raw wrote “Director Maras' choke-hold on the audience only tightens, suspense building not to a point of release, but asphyxiating hysteria... sixteen minutes of non-stop action that rivals the highest Hollywood standards and on more than one occasion surpasses them with blitzkrieg duck n' cover staging.”

Filmoria's Richard Lennox wrote “What’s so special about The Palace is its ability to show both sides of the horror of war and at an essence the spirit of humanity against the atrocities of war...an outstanding film which echoes a quality set by war films such as The Hurt Locker in style. Thought provoking, tense and thoroughly recommended.”

Blake Howard from The Co-Op Post ended his review with, "The Palace is one of the most emotionally affective and powerful short films that I’ve ever seen."[3]

The Australian Film Review praised the film as "one of the most impressive and ambitious Australian shorts I’ve seen at the Sydney Film Festival so far. Or ever."[4]

Cast

Production

The "Palace" scenes were filmed at the House of Hadjigeorkakis Kornessios (1779), a landmark Ottoman Era residence which was home to the "Dragoman of Cyprus" – the chief tax collector in Cyprus during Ottoman rule – who was later hung in the town square during a revolt. The House has been restored to its former glory and now serves as a museum administered by the Department of Antiquities in the southern Greek part of Nicosia.

Awards and nominations

Awards:

Nominations:

Official Selection - Film Festivals:

References

External links

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