Fellow Year: 2018

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.

Βοrn in Kavala (Northern Greece) in 1987 and studied Film Direction and Editing in Thessaloniki and Paris. In recent years she has been doing video art. She has participated as a director and performer in many festivals around the world, amongst others in Documenta 14 and in 30es Instants Vidéo.

Giorgos Nikopoulos was born in Katerini (Northern Greece) in 1987. He studied Audio and Visual Arts at the Ionian University where he specialized in animation and performing arts. He has worked as a theater actor and as assistant director to Dimos Avdeliodis (2010-2013). In 2014 he founded Baubo Productions and made his first animation short film ”Butter Bunny and his Grape Must Cookies”. In October 2013 he started doctoral studies at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts at the Ionian University, working on a thesis about the affinities between animation and shadow puppetry. His first animation feature film ”THEOX” premiered in November 2017 at the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival and went to on to win distinctions in festivals abroad. In 2018, he was one of the 15 film awardees of ARTWORKS at the SNF Artist Fellowship Program.

He was born in Athens in 1985. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Lyon and from the Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains. His films were shown and awarded at Locarno (Switzerland), at New Directors/New Films (New York), at Angers (France), Documenta Madrid (Spain), Janela (Brazil), Olhar de Cinema (Brazil), Vila do Conde (Portugal), Mar de Plata (Argentina). His short film ”Jeunes hommes à la fenêtre” won the European Film Academy award for Best European Film at the Locarno International Film Festival. He is now shooting his first feature film “La Casa d’Irene”, a twisted, class-related melodrama of endless demolition and renovation work, in an Athens flat.

Manolis Mavris was born in Athens in 1987. He studied Graphic Design and Animation in Athens and Visual Communication in London. During his studies in London he worked at the post-production of English TV series for Channel 4 (”Hunted”) and BBC1 (”Sherlock”). In 2014 he made his first short film ”Blue Train” which was shown at the Leeds International Film Festival (“Best of British” category). In 2017, his second short film, ”Maneki Neko” premiered at the 61st BFI London Film Festival and has since been shown in 35 festivals winning 13 awards. Manolis Mavris currently works in Athens as a director of commercials.

Jacqueline Lentzou was born in 1989 and is a graduate of the London Film School (2013). She tackles non-traditional family forms and their consequences on existence, loneliness and dream making. She has written and directed 4 short films. She is no at the pre-production stage of her first feature ”Selini66” and at the development stage of her second feature ”George”. Her short films have been praised and awarded in festivals (Locarno, Berlin). In 2018 she won the first award of the ”Semaine de la Critique” in Cannes. Retrospectives of her work have been held in Austria and Canada. She participated in the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab with her script of her first feature and at the Torino Film Lab where she won the development fund award of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée. She has represented Greece at the Locarno Film Academy and at the TorontoTalent Lab.

Despina Kourti was born in Rhodes. She studied Law at the University of Athens and at the same time she trained as a filmmaker. Her first short film ”The Doll” (2014) was screened at the 20th Athens International Film Festival. Her second short film ”Ourania” won at the 40th International Short Film Festival of Drama (Northern Greece) four awards:Tonia Marketaki award for Best Female Director, Greek Film Critics Association award, monetary prize ”Motive” of the Greek Film Center, award for best actress to Fotini Baxevani). It was also won the Screenplay award at the 23rd Athens International Film Festival, and was shown at the 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival as well as at Tirana International Film Festival 2018. Also in 2018, Despina Kourti won the ARTWORKS SNF Artist Fellowship award. She is currently working at the pre-production of her next short film, produced by Homemade Films.

Κonstantina Kotzamani was born in Komotini (Northern Greece) and studied Pharmacy at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. She also graduated from the School of Film Department of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Her films have premiered and been screened in international festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and others. She has been awarded repeatedly — twice by the Hellenic Film Academy for Best Short Film of the Year — and was shortlisted for the European Film Academy awards.

Neritan Zinxhiria was born in Tirana in 1989. In the winter of 1990 he emigrated with his family to Greece. In 2008 he was awarded as Best Newcomer Director at the International Short Film Festival in Drama for his first short film “The Best Bride”. His second short film “Chamomile” won the Golden Horseman award at the International Film Festival of Dresden (2013). Neritan Zinxhiria went on to win more than 20 distinctions in about 150 festivals. In Greece he won six awards, one of them for Best Picture at Athens International Film Festival and another for Best Film of the Year from the Hellenic Film Academy. His third film “The Time of A Young Man About To Kill”, shot in Rome, premiered in Busan, South Korea. His most recent film, “A Country of Two”, shot in the Balkans, was screened to acclaim in many parts of the world (Encounters Film Festival-Bristol, Paris Festival for Different and Experimental cinema/Musée Pompidou).

Georgis Grigorakis is a director based in Athens. He studied social psychology in the UK before completing the Master’s  degree “Directing Fiction” at the National Film and Television School (NFTS). Since 2007, he has been writing and directing short films, which have been screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and have won numerous awards, garnering international acclaim. His work has been distributed on TV channels, movie theaters and VOD platforms. His debut feature film, Digger, was developed with the support of a Nipkow Programm fellowship, the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Cannes Festival Cinéfondation Residency. It premiered at the 70th Berlinale, where it received the CICAE Art Cinema Award. The film has won the Best Actor Award at the Sarajevo International Film Festival, as well as five more awards at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, while it continues to screen in renowned international festivals around the world. He has also been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2018).

Eirini Vianelli is a filmmaker and animator who lives and works in Athens. She holds a MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts (Santa Clarita, California). She has received a scholarship from Onassis Foundation. Her animated short films have been shown and awarded in many festivals around the world.