Stergios Paschos was born in Velestino in 1985. He has been living in Athens since 2008. He has worked as a screenwriter and director in Film and Television. He has written and directed several short films. With his project «Pigs in the Wind» he participated in TorinoFilmLab’s Script&Pitch 2013 and Framework 2014, also in MFI script 2 film workshop 2013 and Sarajevo’s Cinelink 2013. In 2016 his debut Feature «AFTERLOV» premiered in Locarno Film Festival at the Concourse Cineasti del Presente and won the youth jury prize for Best picture. So far, the film has been screened in many festivals and won numerous awards.
Alkis Papastathopoulos is a filmmaker from Greece who holds an MA degree in film studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is a Sundance Alumnus and has directed five short films. In 2013 his short film «en pojke» won a special mention at Outview Film Festival. In 2014 his experimental short «En pojke» premiered in MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival and went on to participate in many international festivals (Berlin Porn Film Festival, Pink Screens FF, Leeds Queer Film Festival, Queer City Cinema, Outview FF). In 2018 his short film/music video «Gomenaki» won the Best Sound Music Video award at IndieMemphis Film Festival. The same year he won the HBO Europe award for the Best TV Series project at Midpoint TV Launch for the dramedy series in development «Sleepover» he co-wrote with Maria Hatzakou. In 2019 «Sleepover» was selected to be part of Sundance Institute|Youtube New Voices Lab becoming the first European series ever participating in that lab. His latest short film «Hyped» premiered at the official competition program of the International Film Festival of Athens where it won the award for best actress (Artemis Tzortzoglou, Anna Papageorgiou).
Βorn in Athens in 1988. He graduated from the University of Patras [2012] with a Bachelor in Architecture and he completed his Master’s degree [MSc] in Culture and Documentary Production at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication at Aegean University [2019]. Currently he works as a professional photographer. He has collaborated with UNHCR in Greece, UNICEF’s Hellenic National Committee, websites [lnfo-war.gr, Flix.gr, Mashable.com] and newspapers [ef.syn, Kathimerini].
The documentary «The Canaries» (2019), his first short film, won the FISCHER Audience Award for Best Greek Film Production Under 50′ at the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
Yorgos Zois is a Greek director born on 1982 and based in Athens. He studied applied Math & Nuclear Physics at the NTUA and film direction in UdK Berlin. His work has been selected at A-festivals worldwide (Cannes – Film Critique Week, Venice, Rotterdam, Telluride, Palm Springs, Clermont-Ferrand, EFA nomination among others) and has won numerous awards and distinctions worldwide. His films have been internationally praised for their meta-aesthetics and daring narratives. He was member of the Jury «Lion of the Future» at the 74th Venice IFF.
Vangelis Serfas was born and raised in Salamina, Greece. He studied Film and TV Studies in Athens. He made his first short film as a director-writer, «Sunday» on 2014, which won the Best Screenplay Award on 37th Drama International Film Festival. He is a professional Screenwriter and Script Consultant based in Athens, Greece. Many of his screenplays have been awarded. His script «Tzeni and Giannis» was funded by Hellenic Film Academy on the Competition of Film Factory Short Film Fund on 2017. He co-written the short film «37 Days with Nikoleta Leousi» which won the Best Screenplay Award in Shorts Category on 24th Athens International Film Festival on 2018. He just completed his second short film as a writer/director, Basil, funded by the Greek Film Center. Currently he is writing his first feature film screenplay «The Smell of Gasoline».
Vasilis Kekatos (1991) is a graduate student of Brunel University School of Arts, in London. In 2016, he won Sundance Ignite «What’s Next?» Short Film Challenge and received a mentorship from Sundance Institute, with his short «Zero Star Hotel». With his films «The Silence of the Dying Fish» (2018) and «The Distance Between Us and the Sky» (2019) he has participated in many prestigious film festivals: Locarno, Sundance, Sarajevo, Tallinn Black Nights, Palm Springs and Telluride. Ηe recently www awarded the short film Palme d’Οr and the Queer Palm at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. Vasilis is currently working on his debut feature film.
Born in Athens, Greece, in 1980. She studied film in Athens and she got an MA in documentary & society at ESCAC. Since then she has worked in the film, television and advertising industry. She has written and directed four short films and a feature. Her short film, «Dad, Lenin and Freddy» was selected at numerous international film festivals: Clermont-Ferrand, Sao Paolo, Chicago, Edinburgh among others, and wοn several distinctions. Ιn 2012 it was awarded for Best Short Film of the Hellenic Film Academy and three more awards at the Short Film Festival of Drama including the Silver Alexandros. The film was broadcasted by Canal + and SBS in Australia. «Schoolyard», her next short, premiered at the 64th Berlinale and was nominated for the Crystal Bear, was also one of the five nominees for the best short film 2014 at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards. The film was selected in many Internationals Film Festivals (Guanajuato, Edinburgh, Dresden, Brest etc) and win distinctions for it’s experimental means. Her debut film Cosmic Candy, was selected to participate in the Sundance If Istanbul Screenwriter’s Lab and had its World Premiere in Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.
Elina Panik was born in Athens, where she studied German literature and Filmmaking. In 2009 she moved to Berlin, where she continued her studies at the Filmakademie Kelle. She has worked as an art director and costume designer for film and television productions in Greece and Germany. In 2010 she participated at the Berlinale Talent Campus with her film «The Desperation of Mimi». Her fourth film «The mirror of Lord Patschog» won the Platinum Remi Award at Worldfest Houston, Texas, 2013 and the award for Direction of Photography at the Short Film Festival of Drama. That same year she won the Best LoFi Award at the Berlin Music Video Awards and the Siegessäule Magazine’s Best Queer Video Award for the music video «Terrorist». Her latest short film, a Greek-Lithuanian production, «Anna and Phaedra» premiered in September 2019 at the Drama International Short Film Festival.
Yannis Korres was born in Athens in 1986. He studied filmmaking at the Film and Television Department of New York College. He worked as assistant director in short and feature films. «Kissing?» was his feature film debut and premiered at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film (BAFICI). He is currently working on the development of his second feature «Girl Without Clothes» and the feature documentary «Look at the Sea».
Konstantinos Antonopoulos is a filmmaker based in Athens. He studied computer science in Athens and received his MFA in filmmaking from Columbia University in New York on an Onassis Foundation scholarship. His first short film «Can’t Play The Piano» premiered at Zagreb Film Festival 2007. Since then he has directed several other shorts such as «Postcards From The End Of The World» (Sarajevo Film Festival 2019), «Lea» (Honorary Distinction at Athens International Film Festival 2013) and «Without Glasses» (Special Award at Drama Film Festival 2009). He co-wrote the feature film «Symptom» (Torino Film Festival 2015) and edited the feature film «My First Kiss And The People Involved» (L.A. Film Festival 2016). His scripts have participated in workshops such as Torino Film Lab and Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink. In 2019 he was awarded by ARTWORKS the SNF Artist Fellowship. He’s unsure which of the two — courage or patience — is most important, or whether, strangely, they are both the very same thing.
Born in Athens in 1981. Nikoleta studied chemical engineering but soon decided she is interested in filmmaking. She entered the university on a scholarship and bought her first camera with the money from it. She has studied cinema both in Greece and the UK where she completed an MA in Fiction Film. Her previous short films are stories with a strong central character with a backdrop of social and political turmoil. They blend character-driven storytelling and political cinematic commentary. Her previous short film «37 Days»premiered at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (2019). Nikoleta’s films have been screened in various festivals. A Berlinale and Sarajevo Talents alumna, she is currently writing the script for her first feature «Anna’s weddings» and working on a personal documentary project.
Konstantinos Samaras was born and raised in Thessaloniki. He graduated with a Law degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and then studied Film in Paris, where he lived and worked for several years. In addition to directing, he has worked as a film festival programmer and film critic. He has worked as an assistant director in various films, including Nikos Panayotopoulos, Benoît Jacquot, Panos Koutras. He has directed the short films «Gloria», «The Red Raincoat», «The Quiet Nights», «Three Eggholders Almost Four». His first feature film, «Magic Skin», was screened in Berlin Critics Week, while the protagonist Anthi Efstratiadou won the Emerging Actor Award at the Athens International Film Festival «Opening Nights». He is in the process of preparing his second feature film «Epitaph».
Born in Volos, Greece, in 1983. Lives and works in Athens. Studied in various artistic fields: ceramics, drawing, sculpture and art history. She obtained her Master’s degree in Cinema and Audiovisual from the University of Paris VIII, with specialization in Film Direction.
Born in Greece, 1986. He studied at the London Film School, LFS and Kingston University, London. He has worked as a writer, director and editor. His short films were screened in more than 200 international film festivals, including Cannes, New Directors/New Films, BFI and AFI Fest, and have received numerous prizes. They have also been acquired by TV channels, VoD and online platforms (Nowness, Vimeo Staff Picks, etc.). In 2016, he was selected for the Filmmakers Academy at the 69th Locarno Film Festival. His latest short film, «Copa-Loca» (2017), won the Greek Academy Award and was nominated for the European Film Award. «Broadway», his debut feature script, was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2018 and L’Atelier Cinéfondation, Cannes Film Festival.
Christina Koutsospyrou was born in Athens in 1980. She moved to London in 1998 where she studied Graphic Design at the London College of Printing and later on Photography at Fashion Institute of Technology New York. In 2010, after successfully pursuing a career in illustration and textile design, she returned to Greece and filmed her debut feature «To the Wolf», a docu-fictional exploration of the lives of shepherds in the mountains of Nafpaktia where her father grew up. The film premiered at the Berlinale in 2013 and was screened in over 50 film festivals worldwide, including Toronto, Sao Paulo, Viennale, Torino, Thessaloniki. It won awards at Dokufest, Doclisboa and Syros. Christina is currently working on two feature films and a video installation.
Daphné Hérétakis studied Film at the University Paris 8 (Saint-Denis) and at the Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains (Tourcoing, Northern France). Her films, a genre between experimental documentary and fiction, have taken part and been awarded in international festivals: IFF Rotterdam, Visions du réel, Hors Pistes Pompidou, Internationale Kurtzfilmtage Winterthur, Entrevues de Belfort, Festival Européen du film court de Brest, EMAF Osnabrück, Lussas les États généraux du film documentaire. She shares her time between Athens and Paris.
Yiorgos Fourtounis was born in Rhodes in 1984. Ηe grew up in Athens where he studied Philosophy-Pedagogy-Psychology at the University of Athens and Filmmaking at the technical college AKMI. Since 2005 he has worked as a film editor, assistant director and assistant cinematographer in the following films: “Boy is Eating the Bird’s Food” (by Εktoras Lygizos), “The Sentimentalists” (by Nicholas Triantafyllidis), ‘The Sunset” (by Gregoris Rentis). He has directed three short films. His second film ”Pistoma” (On the Belly) was shown in Rio de Janeiro/Curta Cinema, in Thessaloniki and at the festival Short Shorts in Tokyo. It was awarded as Best Fiction at the International Short Film Festival of Drama (Northern Greece) and was nominated for Best Short Film of the Year by the Greek Film Academy. His film ”Icaros” was shown at the 21st Athens International Film Festival and won the award for Best Director.
Born in Athens in 1984. He has studied and made music since his childhood. In 2011, he graduated from the School of Mathematics at the University of Athens and started making and editing music videos. In 2014 He completed Filmmaking Studies at the Metropolitan College and directed his first short film ”Νipenthes”.
Ioanna Petinaraki studied Film Production at the School of Film of the University of Thessaloniki. She has participated as producer in six short films, one feature and one feature-length documentary. In 2012-13 she was part of the executive production of the Greek-British feature ”The Journey”, directed by Lance Nielsen that was screened in international festivals (e.g. Saint-Tropez International Film Festival). Her films have been shown at the Docs Barcelona, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Sarajevo Talents and the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). She has been sponsored by the Greek Film Center for her documentary “Back to the Top‘’ which won the Audience Award of the Hellenic Television Corporation award at the 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Since 2017 she has been working as a freelancer producer for television programs (”Herbs, Fruit of the Earth”: Light Thickens Productions; ”Legends of the Soccer Fields”: Prosenghisi Productions). She was recently an awardee of ARTWORKS and participated in the SNF Artist Fellowship Program. Ιn 2017 she set up the company Moving Rooster Productions in Thessaloniki.
Despina Economopoulou is a Greek filmmaker who works internationally on experimental video, film and video-installation. She tackles social and political problems and offers food for thought on crucial and urgent matters like the proliferation of plastics (”Aurora”) or the limits of reality and illusion (”Loop”). She makes hybrid, interdisciplinary works that have been shown in Greece, London, Barcelona and São Paulo.