Greek director Panos Koutras rejected his awards at the Greek Film Academy Awards as protest against a Greek law that doesn’t grant citizenship rights to second generation Greeks. This meant that his film, Xenia, that won the awards for Best Picture and Best Director were left unaccepted. Koutras, did however, go on stage to give the reason for his refusal to accept the awards.

“We will not accept this award because life is unfair and unjust. We will leave it here at the Greek Film Academy and we will take it when the law regarding the citizenship of second generation migrant children is passed,” he said.

Xenia, a film about two teenage brothers crossing the country to find their Greek father after their Albanian mother passes away, is focusedthe two boys work to get citizenship. It was celected to compete at the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was selected for screening at the Contemporary World Cinema section of 2014.