Yiannis Kolozis has worked as a film director, editor and cinematographer. For a short period of time he was drawn to fiction but then quickly traced his steps back to documentary. During his postgraduate studies at the Northern Media School, Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, he directed two short films: SoundRoom (2005) and Get Lost (2006). In 2009, he travelled to Argentina to film a documentary about natural farming. His first feature length documentary, Un Cóndor (2015), was shot in Chile, while his second one, Yiorgos of Kedros (2020), was filmed between 1972 and 2018 on the island of Donoussa in collaboration with his father. Both documentaries were personal productions funded by crowdfunding campaigns. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Nikos Ziogas was born and raised in Greece. He studied image, sound and editing. Since 2009 he has been working as a director and director of photography in documentary productions. Memento, his first feature-length documentary, was realized with the support of the Greek Film Center. The film premiered at the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where the Greek Film Center awarded it the Best Newcoming Director prize, and is continuing its course at international festivals. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Katerina Mavrogeorgi was born and raised in Athens, Greece. She is a graduate of Nellie Karra’s Higher School of Dramatic Art ARCHI and of the Department of Communication, Media and Culture, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. She writes, acts and directs both for the cinema and for the theatre. In 2020, together with Aineias Tsamatis and Yiannis Karabatsos, she wrote the script for the short film The Crossing, which she subsequently directed in collaboration with Aineias Tsamatis. In 2021, she authored a new play under the working title Ships Detained at the Port. In 2019, she wrote the play The Bathers, which was presented in Skrow Theater under her direction. The play made its second premiere in 2022, and is scheduled to appear in print from Kapa Ekdotiki in October 2022. In 2017, she wrote the script for the short film script Maneki Neko, in collaboration with Manolis Mavris, who also directed the film. As a theater actress, she has worked with the companies Patari Project and Blitz Theater Group, while she is one of the founding members of Skrow Theater Group company. In theater, she has collaborated with directors Thomas Moschopoulos, Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou, Argyris Xafis, and Vasia Attarian, among other. In cinema, she has played in films directed by Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Zacharias Mavroeidis, Pantelis Voulgaris and Thelgia Petraki. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks (2022).
Lucas Paleocrassas was born and raised in Greece. He studied communication at the American College of Greece and in 2014 he gained work experience in a Los Angeles-based production company after winning a scholarship from the Libra Group conglomerate. He has directed documentaries for television and the cinema, which have been screened at international festivals and major educational institutions, including the Sapienza University of Rome and New York University. Citizen Xenos, his first feature-length documentary premiered in 2018 at the 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and was nominated for the Amnesty International award. In 2022, his feature-length documentary Final Year, co-produced by Anemon Productions and the Hellenic Film Center, was selected for the competition section of the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The film is scheduled to be released in cinemas in the fall of 2022. In addition, he has been commissioned to create a film documenting the actions of the Active citizens Fund Greece, managed by the Bodosaki Foundation and the non-governmental organization SolidarityNow. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS in 2022.
Lida Vartzioti is a graduate of the School of Film Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she specialized in directing and screenwriting. She has directed the promotional video for the 90th anniversary of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2018, after securing the support of the European Network of Young Cinema (NISI MASA) she attended the Pitching Training program offered during ShorTS International Film Festival in Trieste. In 2019, she participated in Sarajevo Talent Campus. She is part of a directing duo, together with Dimitris Tsakaleas. Their first short film, entitled Yawth, travelled to many film festivals around the world, while the Greek Film Centre selected it for the MOTIVE award during the 41st Drama International Film Festival. Their second short film, Sad Girl Weekend, had its world premiere at the 25th Sarajevo International Film Festival and travelled to prestigious film festivals around the world, including the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (screened as part of the program Future Frames), the 31st Trieste International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Their hybrid short film, Literal Legend had its international premiere during the 43rd Cairo International Film Festival (in competition section), while their short film Happy Ending premiered at the 45th Norwegian Short Film Festival (in competition section). They are currently completing their latest short film and are in pre-production for their next one, while developing their first feature film. Lida has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Leonidas Konstantarakos was born in Athens in 1983. He lives and works in Athens, Greece as a film director and producer. He studied Film & TV Direction at the Hellenic Cinema and TV School Stavrakos in Athens. In 2013, following many years of working in film and TVC productions under various capacities and roles, he decided to co-found Alaska Films, a creative audiovisual and film production company. He has produced and/or directed audiovisual projects of various formats, ranging from feature-length documentaries to commercials and animated corporate videos. His documentaries have been presented in international film festivals, winning a number of awards. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Elia Kalogianni (1995) was born and raised in Athens. She studied at the School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki and continued her audiovisual studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, from where she graduated in 2019. In 2017, she attended courses in analog film and performance at Cooper Union College in New York. She works as a filmmaker and visual artist. Her work combines films, video installations and video essays. In her practice, she gives value to what usually remains invisible and, adopting a female gaze approach, she aims to raise questions about loneliness, memories, contact, identity, surveillance and the distinction between reality and fantasy. Elia has participated in exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Eye Film Museum and the International Theater in Amsterdam, among others. Her short film Phélia (2020) premiered at the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), was a finalist for the Hellenic Film Academy Awards (category: best student short film) and has been awarded and screened in many international festivals. Soldier 365 (2019), her first experimental short film, received a Special Mention at the Eye on Art Research Lab organized by the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam and premiered at the Drama International Short Film Festival. She is currently working on Mammalia, a short experimental film supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Greek Film Centre and the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. She has also collaborated on projects for the exhibition center Looiersgracht 60 (Netherlands), the Amsterdam Conservatory (CvA) and Onassis Stegi. Elia also works as an exhibition manager at the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam and as a coordinator for the environmental program Echoes, part of the Aegean Film Festival. She is a fellow of LAPS: Research Institute for Art and Public Space (Netherlands). She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Eleftheria Katsianou was born in Athens and is a filmmaker. She has studied political science and history at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. After completing her studies, she worked in TV productions under various positions and then decided to delve deeper into scriptwriting and filmmaking, with a Master’s degree in filmmaking earned from Kingston University London (2012). In addition to her own projects, she has collaborated with other filmmakers and artists and has taken part with group projects in festivals and exhibitions in Greece and abroad. Her one-minute film titled Remains (2020) has been selected at international festivals, winning a number of awards. In 2021, she completed Trash, a short documentary which has been presented in festivals both in Greece and abroad and was nominated for an Iris award by the Hellenic Film Academy. Currently, she is in the process of developing her next documentary in northern Iceland. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Dimitris Tsalapatis is a director based in Athens. He studied Film Directing at Stavrakou Film School and at Goldsmiths College, University of London (MA in Filmmaking). His debut short film, entitled Torpor, was realized with the support of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation’s Microfilm program (2017). The film premiered at the 41st Drama International Short Film Festival, where it was awarded the Nikos Katsouridis Special Prize for a Newcoming Director as well as the Greek Society of Cinematographers’ award for best visual narration. It was also selected for the 24th Athens International Film Festival and the 12th Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival; and had its international premiere at Linz International Short Film Festival before continuing its course in other festivals around the world. His second short film, Your Hands, which he developed as a postgraduate student at Goldsmiths, premiered at British Urban Film Festival 2020. He is currently working on the post-production of True Love, his third short film, and the pre-production of another short entitled Little Lives, whose script has received funding from the Microfilm program ran by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (2020) and the Greek Film Centre. He is currently in development for his first feature film, Boyos, also funded by the Greek Film Centre.
Konstantinos Chaliasas (1992) is PhD candidate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), specializing in music composition for the opera and the cinema. He holds a BA and an MA (both awarded with honors) from the Department of Music at the AUTH and an MA in Music Composition for the Cinema, Theatre and for Performance Arts from the Department of Music at the Ionian University. He has composed and directed short films which have been presented and awarded at international Film Festivals (Austin international Film Festival, Seoul International Youth Film Festival, Athens International Film Festival, Drama International Short Film Festival, etc.). He is an alumnus of Sarajevo Talents, and has been awarded two international prizes in the context of the competition Rethinking Xenakis: Composition for Ensemble by the Centre Iannis Xenakis for his video and music installations, which then went on to premiere in the US, France, Japan and Mexico, among others. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Asimina Proedrou was born in 1982, in Athens, Greece. She studied music (2001), economics (BA in 2005 and MSc in 2007, both from the Athens University of Economics and Business) and film directing (BA awarded by the Athens Metropolitan College in 2013, and MA from Staffordshire University in 2016). Her short film, Red Hulk (2013), which she wrote, directed and produced herself during her undergraduate studies, was awarded a Golden Dionysus at the Drama International Short Film Festival (2013) and won the Best Short Film Award at the 2013 Athens International Film Festival. Red Hulk was officially selected for more than sixty international film festivals, including the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (International Competition, 2014), winning nine awards in total. Her debut feature film Behind the Haystacks, scheduled to be released in 2022, has been developed through the programs Script Station – Talents Sarajevo (2015); Script Station – Talents Berlinale (2016); and First Film First Goethe-Institut Young Directors Academy (2016-2017), while it has also won a development grant by the French Centre National du cinéma et de l’Image animée at the Crossroads Co-production Forum of the 57th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The film is a Greek/German/North Macedonian co-production, supported, among others, by the following organizations and programs: Greek Film Center, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, Creative Europe Media, Southern Eastern Europe Cinema Network, the North Macedonian Film Agency, ZDF-Arte and the EU cultural support fund Eurimages. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Alexandros Skouras was born and raised in Athens. He has studied economics, cultural studies and philosophy. From 2008 to 2016, he taught film aesthetics and film direction on a voluntary basis within the frame of seminars offered by the Student’s Cultural Club of the University of Athens. He has written and directed the following short films: Gran Partita (2011), 807 (2012), Abies (2013), Trains (2012), Cube (2016), Harmonica Man (2020), Halkyon Days (2022), and the feature-lenght documentary In search of Kazantzakis (2018). His films have been presented in numerous Greek and international film festivals and received significant awards (Golden Dionysus at the Drama International Short Film Festival for the film Cube; Best Screenplay Award at the Athens International Film Festival for the same film; Silver Dionysus at the DISFF for the film Harmonica Man; and Best Digital Film Award, again at the DISFF, for the film Gran Partita). Currently, he is working on his first feature film, and is in pre-production for his next documentary. Moreover, he works as a freelance director and editor in television documentaries. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022).
Alexandros Apostolakis was born and raised in Athens. He studied graphic design at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens and has been working as an illustrator, animator, storyboard artist and character designer since 2012. In 2013, he completed his first animated short film entitled The guillable kiss of Μr. Patokos. After being screened at the Drama International Short Film Festival, the film was presented in a number of film festivals around the world, winning several awards including a golden award at the 5th Hong Kong International Mobile Film Awards (animation category). Ever sinceμ he has been collaborating with Odd Bleat studios as an animator for the advertising industry. In 2018, he worked on the character design and character animation for the award-winning short film Heatwave (dir. Fokion Xenos). He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks (2022).
Alexandros Chantzis was born in Agrinion, Greece in 1985. He is a graduate of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2011). He has worked in several films as an assistant and casting director. He has directed the award-winning short films Student Occupation, Chelsea-Barcelona and I’ll take a deep breath and I’ll tell you; as well as the TV documentary feature film Bullying Diaries, produced for the Greek child welfare organization The Smile of the Child. In addition, he has co-directed projects commissioned by the Hellenic Post, Onassis Stegi and the Cavafy Archive. He has also directed music videos and two episodes of the TV documentary series Pirates of the Aegean. In 2014, his feature script What a silly boy was selected for the !f Istanbul-Sundance Screenwriters Lab. In 2020, he was selected to participate in the program Sarajevo Talent Campus with his feature script The Village in the Woods, while for the same project he also received a script development grant from the Greek Film Center. In 2021, he directed the TV documentary film The Battle of Lepanto and co-directed the TV documentary series The Generation of the 30’s as well as the documentary film The Massacre of Chios. Also in 2021, he received a commendation for his theatrical play Fuit in the biennial playwriting competition organized by the Greek State. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks (2022).
Antonios Vallindras was born in Athens and raised in various cities both in Greece and abroad. He studied economics in Athens and has worked as an Account Executive for Ogilvy Greece. In 2014, he decided to change careers and focus on filmmaking. He holds an MA in Directing Film and Television from Bournemouth University and has directed four short films. His film The Life of a Sober Man (2016) was nominated in the UK for the RTS Student Television Award. He has worked on numerous projects as a director and producer and as assistant director and co-producer in the film Amerika Square (dir. Yannis Sakaridis). He took part in the START – Create Cultural Change program of the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and is a co-founding member of the Ladies’ Fingers directing duo. His latest film, White Christmas 1948 (2022), received funding from the Greek Film Center and the Microfilm program ran by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks (2022).
Irida Zhonga is an award winning animation director specializing in stop motion animation. Her first animation film «The Meaning of Life» (2009), was screened αt numerous festivals and won a total of 7 awards, 2 of which at the Drama short film festival. In 2012 she graduated from the University of the Arts, London with a degree in Film and Television and started her career in the film and television industry. In London she worked as a director of commercials and as a producer for British and international TV shows. In 2017 she returned to Athens and started developing her new animation film «Man Wanted». The film script won Βest Script award at the Greek Film Festival of London in 2012. It is funded by ERT and the Greek National Film Centre, the Estonian Film Centre, the Serbian Film Centre and the Albanian Centre of Cinematography. It is the first Greek-Estonian collaboration in an audiovisual project.
Panagiotis Charamis was born in Drama (Νοrthern Greece) in 1978. He studied Film and Filmmaking in England and since then he has been working as a director in documentaries, short films and advertising in Greece, England and Turkey. His first feature documentary «Attention!» which he co-directed with Onur Bakir won the Best Documentary Award at the Film Festival of Istanbul (2016) and his latest short film «Avanos» won the Best Short Film Award at the International Short Film Festival in Drama in 2018. Currently, he is developing his first feature film with the same title «Avanos», based on his latest work.
Araceli Lemos is a Greek writer, director and editor. As an editor, Araceli’s work includes the documentary «They Glow in the Dark» (director Panayotis Evangelidis), winner of the Hellenic Film Academy Award for Best Documentary and the FIPRESCI Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Her short film, «Miguel Alvarez Wears a Wig», was screened at festivals worldwide including Tampere, Leeds and Outfest. Araceli’s work as director spans from theatre (Shakespeare’s «Measure for Measure») to commissioned works for clients such as the HFPA, the U.S. Embassy in Greece and the French Institute in Athens. She is now in pre-production of her debut fiction film, titled «Holy Emy». In 2013, Araceli created the International Project Discovery Forum, a development and pitching program for Balkan features, as part of the LA Greek Film Festival. Araceli is a 2013 Berlinale Talent Campus alumnus and holds an MFA in Film Directing from CalArts, as a Fulbright and Onassis Foundation Scholar.
Antigoni Rota was born in Athens in 1984. Starting from documentary production at Anemon non-profit organization, she contributed in various company projects as A Dolphin Man, Doc.2017/The Journey of Food, Documentary series for SKAI television, CineDoc, Production Office. Since 2016, she has been the main producer of Squared Square Films. Her body of work has been acknowledged with international awards and multiple distinctions around the world. Her short films have also been broadcasted on TV channels (ARTE and Cosmote TV) and distributed in several VOD platforms as well as in European cinemas. Her two most recent short films are «Eighth Continent» which premiered in Venice Film Festival in 2017 and «Third Kind» which premiered in Semaine de la Critique Cannes in May 2018. At the moment, she is producing her first feature documentary,«Stray Bodies» by Elina Psykou, and she is developing the short «Third Kind» to a feature retro Balkan sci- fi directed by Yorgos Zois.
Lia Tsalta is a film writer and director living and working in Athens, Greece. She studied Film & Television Directing in Athens. In 2012, she was selected to attend the intensive Filmmaking workshops at NewSchool Athens with a scholarship. «The Forest» (2018, 18’) was her first short fiction film; it premiered at the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival and is still being screened in Greece and abroad (Encounters Film Festival, Uppsala International Film Festival, Brussels Short Festival, etc.).