Introduction
“Athens ‘96 The Golden Olympics” is a short animated film made in 1987 as part of a campaign to promote Athens as host for the Olympic Games of 1996, the year in which the 100th anniversary of the revival of the modern Olympic Games would be celebrated. The music for the film was composed by Vangelis.
The initiative to create the animation came from Jules Dassin, the American film director and husband of Melina Mercouri, the renowned Greek singer and politician who held the office of Minister of Culture at the time. Both Dassin and Mercouri were devoted supporters of the Athens bid for the 1996 Olympics, and as good friends of Vangelis, this is probably how he became involved in the project.
Apart from providing music for this short film, Vangelis would perform the ‘Song For Athens’ concert at the Panathenaic stadium of Athens in 1990 to promote Athens as a candidate to host the 1996 Olympic Games. Ultimately the effort did not win and Athens was passed fo Atlanta, but later, with the help of Vangelis, Athens did win the bid to host the Olympic Games of 2004.
Details and credits
- Title: Athens ‘96 The Golden Olympics
- Year: 1987
- Country: Greece
- Length: 10 minutes
- Directed by Jules Dassin.
- Music by Vangelis.
- Producted by Yannis Georgariou.
- Animation Team: Panagiotis Rappas, Angelos Rouvas, Petros Zervos, Kostas Stamatis, Thanasis Sakellarakis, Manos Diamantidis
Links
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