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The group of 100 filmmakers, named Film-Makers in the Mist, decided to boycot Greece’s state-run film awards and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival after the government failed to heed their calls for changes to its film laws and awards voting practices.   The existing rules required a jury of fifty people made up of film union members to vote, a system the group insisted was both corrupt and subject to bias.   The group also wanted chances to the state’s financial backing of films and the Greek Film Commission, and the introduction of a tax shelter.

 One of the group’s more prominent members was acclaimed director Costa-Gavras who sat on an independent committee to draft a new law earlier in 2009.   The introduction of this law was delayed when the Minister for Culture was replaced, and was complicated further by the timing of an imminent election in October 2009.   The election meant that the new law could not come into force until the end of October, which would be too late for the filmmakers to then permit their films to be screened at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival which was scheduled to take place in November.   The protest meant a number of key Greek films wouldn’t be shown at the festival, which was celebrating its 50^th year, and that there would be no participation in the festival by members of the group.   

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