Music Video, Commercial and AI Director in Athens

Athens at a glance

Most of Greece's production studios and audiovisual professionals are based in Athens, according to the Athens Film Office, which the City of Athens set up in March 2020 through its development agency, Develop Athens. Nationally, the Hellenic Film Commission is a directorate of the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center, which answers to the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

music videos in Athens

The Athens Epidaurus Festival has been running for 70 years, which makes it one of the oldest continuously running festivals in Europe, and it programmes music, dance and theatre at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Peiraios 260 industrial venue among others. Rebetiko, the song form that spread through the urban working class in the early 20th century, joined UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2017. For the rest of the calendar there is the Megaron concert hall and the Release Athens summer festival, which books international acts.

commercials in Athens

The Athens Film Office calls the city an attractive destination for film, TV and advertising shoots, and a Perrier commercial filmed in Kotzia Square sits among its featured productions. Its services are free: location scouting with local location managers, help with permits, hospitality contacts, advice on public funding, and coordination with city departments for road closures and other special requests.

locations and light

Within easy reach you get ancient ruins, neoclassical buildings, modern architecture and the coast, and Corinth is about an hour away by road. Daylight is generous: the Hellenic Film Commission puts it at 14 hours 45 minutes in July and about nine and a half hours in January.

working in Athens

Short-term permits to occupy public space are issued by the City of Athens with the film office's help, free for productions with social or cultural aims and otherwise subject to the municipal advertising charge, and applications should go in at least 30 days ahead. Monuments and archaeological sites need a separate permit from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and a commercial applying for one must include a Hellenic Film Commission certificate on its content.

Film office: Athens Film Office.

Greece's 40 percent cash rebate, run by the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (Creative Greece), covers film, TV, animation and documentary, and its rules exclude advertising messages, so commercials do not qualify.

Time zone: Eastern European Time (UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer).

Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH) is the gateway, and Air Canada's published schedule shows direct Toronto flights daily from May to October, a lighter service in autumn and early winter, and a pause from early January to March.

AI-led and hybrid pieces can be developed remotely, with a live shoot in Athens only where the idea needs one.