For the ninth year running, the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis) is hosting the Animegaron International Composition Competition, part of the Bridges (Gefyres) series, in collaboration with the Animasyros International Animation Festival + Market.
The core aim of Animegaron is to serve as a platform that showcases talented composers of music for the moving image, while also creating a channel of communication with audiences and with professionals from the world of film and sound. The steady, strong interest that creators show in film music is reflected in the large number of entries from Greece and abroad every year. In the case of animated films — such as this year’s short film “ROE” by Chloe Atzaka, for which participants were invited to compose original music — interest is even greater, since such films offer composers a wide field of freedom, imagination, and creative composition.
“ROE,” inspired by dreams and the subconscious, seeks to capture the absurdity and discontinuity of dreams in relation to the equally absurd nature of reality: in a dreamlike world, a girl sleeps beside a spring where water flows from the mouth of a marble panther. When the water stops, the girl wakes, and a glowing sphere appears, which she swallows — setting off a chain of strange events that leaves the impression the same story will repeat itself. The film’s circular structure mirrors the way experiences and memories recur and transform over time. At the same time, it explores friendship as well as one’s deeper relationship with oneself.
The film “ROE” is being showcased on the Athens Concert Hall’s social media channels, “dressed” in the ten best compositions selected by the jury.
First Prize: Stylianos Athanasopoulos / Greece
Second Prize: Eleni Exarchou / Greece
Third Prize: Anastasia Souka Simou / Greece
Honorable Mention (First): Gavriil Farilekas / Greece
Honorable Mention (Second): Aliak Bedirian / England
Also honoured:
Salvatore Bezzi / Italy
Anastasios Sourbas / Greece
Manuel Parrilla Sánchez / Spain
Dimitris Kontos / Greece
Alexandros Anastasiou / Greece
In collaboration with the Animasyros International Animation Festival + Market
The First Prize in the Animegaron 2026 International Composition Competition went to Stylianos Athanasopoulos of Greece, the Second Prize to Eleni Exarchou (Greece), and the Third Prize to Anastasia Souka Simou (Greece). The three Animegaron winners receive cash prizes and will be supported through a broad range of promotional activities. The jury also awarded a First Honorable Mention to Gavriil Farilekas of Greece and a Second Honorable Mention to Aliak Bedirian (England).
This year’s jury included:
- Giorgos Lazaridis – pianist, composer, Assistant Professor at the Department of Music Studies, University of Macedonia
- Nikos Xanthoulis – composer, soloist on ancient Greek lyre and trumpet
- Anastasia Manou – producer
- Dimitris Maragkopoulos – composer, head of the Bridges series at the Athens Concert Hall, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Music Studies, Ionian University
- Evanthia Reboutsika – composer, violin soloist
With many thanks to Zorzes Katris for his voluntary contribution to the organisation of this year’s competition.
See the award-winning entries here and on Megaron the Athens Concert Hall’s YouTube channel
Watch the results announcement streamed live here here
See more about this year’s competition here