I define myself in the Present, within its fluidity, as a transcendental subjectivity whose role is to be expressed or lost with the utmost precision, passing from one to the other, recording static or time-delayed images and emphasizing the process of construction and the activity of the eye itself. Aiming to build a meta-existential scenario or view capable of reiterating the theory of the gaze, dramatizing the mechanisms of vision or objectifying the movements of the eye, while reflecting the mental state of (co)trivial (A), always with a reflective mode entirely re-invented, ambiguous and repetitive. I wonder what the different (‘A’s) are doing at this critical moment and whom am I talking about?
Efi is a photographer-filmmaker (Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos) and founder of kammerspiel_project space in Athens. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Born in 1984 and raised in Athens. While studying communication and media at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, he realised cinema was his calling. He graduated from the London Film School’s MA in Filmmaking. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). He has directed the short films Iceberg, Invisible and Iskioma, all of which have been screened and won prizes in international film festivals. He is currently developing the feature film Five Murders Without a Cause; and the crime drama 10 Bullets, the first Greek TV series project selected for an international training program (MIDPOINT TV Launch 2017) and an international TV market (MIPTV Canneseries In Development 2019), and also the first to receive development funding from Creative Europe (Media strand). At the moment, he is pre-producing his new short film entitled Cleaner.
Zacharias Mavroeidis is an Athens-based film director, writer and scriptwriter. He studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, theatre at the Royal Higher College of Performing Arts (RESAD) in Madrid, scriptwriting at the International School of Film and TV (EICTV) in Cuba and filmmaking at New York College in Athens. He is a Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campus alumni. Since 2015 he has been teaching scriptwriting in Athens. He participated in the edited volumes What does art teach us? (FRMK editions, 2020, ed. Katerina Iliopoulou) and The lost highway of Greek cinema (Nefeli editions, 2019, ed. Aphrodite Nikolaidou) and wrote opinion articles for 10% magazine. In 2014 his first novel Efta psiches sto stoma was published in Greece, and is currently in development as a feature animation film. His debut feature, entitled The Guide (2011), screened in more than 20 international film festivals. His documentary Across her body (2018) premiered at the International Competition section of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and received a mention at the Burgas International Film Festival. His sophomore feature, entitled Defunct (2019), won the Young Jury and the Audience awards in the international competition section of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Best Film award at the 2020 International Film Festival KineNova and the Best Script award at the 2020 Hellenic Film Academy Iris awards. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Dimitris Nakos is based in Athens, Greece, where he works as a director, screenwriter and producer. He holds a Phd in Cinema and Philosophy from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens and a postgraduate degree in the field of cultural studies also from Panteion University; and is a graduate of the Department of History and Archeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has directed 14 short films, which have been screened in many festivals, receiving a number of awards. In addition, he has served as producer and assistant director in more than 50 productions (short and feature films and documentaries). He is an alumni of the Torino Film Lab, the MFI 2 Script Lab and the AlbaScript+ by Balkan Film Market, and a member of the Hellenic Film Academy. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
He is currently in pre-production for his first feature film, Meat.
Glykeria Patramani was born in Trikala in 1982. She graduated from the department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds a Diploma in Acting and a Master’s degree in Theatrical Studies from the University Paris 8. She has participated in the Sarajevo Talent Campus and has collaborated with the Mediterranean Film Institute, the Kids. Kino Lab and the Less is More programme as a script editor. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). Her short stories have appeared in several literary magazines, in Greece and internationally.
Filmography
2021 Pink Mountain, short, dir. Thomas Künstler (post-production)
2021 Behind Waves, short, dir. Valentin Stejskal (post-production)
2021 The Dog, short, dir. Konstantinos Demis (pre-preproduction)
2021 Luna Park, dir. Florenc Papas (pre-production)
2021 Markos, dir. Thomas Künstler (development)
2020 Daniel 16, dir. Dimitris Koutsiabasakos
2016 Silent Witness, documentary, dir. Dimitris Koutsiabasakos
2014 Becoming an actor, documentary, dir. Dimitris Koutsiabasakos
She holds a BA in European Studies and an MA in Social Sciences and Cultural Studies. She has studied at the University of Portsmouth (UK), University of Charles (Prague), Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), and Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). She commenced her professional career in cinema as executive producer assistant at Origo Studios in Budapest in 2013. She has studied directing and cinematography and attended numerous workshops (Digital Production Challenge II 2019 and Documentary Campus Alumni 2020, among others). She has worked on international feature films as part of the director’s team or in production (Publieke Werken, 2014, dir. Joram Lürsen, NL/HU; Tsatsiki, 2015, dir. Lisa James Larsson, SE/GR; Interrail, 2018, dir. Carmen Alessandrin, FR/DE/HU/GR; Crimes of the Future, 2021, dir. David Cronenberg), and line-produced many incoming TV projects from China. For the last six years, she has been part of the production team of Argonauts Productions. Currently, she is developing two feature-length documentaries as a first-time producer (Dear Future by Christiana Chiranasgnostaki; and GingerELA by Thanasis Neofotistos) and is the International Coordinator at the Drama International Film Festival 2021. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Υorgos Teltzidis has studied film directing and European culture and is a co-founder of the production company Long Shot Films. He is an alumni of the Berlinale, Sarajevo and Zurich Talent Campuses. Six of his scripts have been funded by the Greek Broadcasting Corporation and the Greek Film Center. In 2013, he received praise as well as the Panhellenic Film Critics Association award for his script Generator at the Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF). In 2015 his short film Dye was nominated for the Hellenic Film Academy award, while in 2017 his short Film Dam won the Best Southeastern European Film award at the DISFF and was nominated for the Hellenic Film Academy award. He has served as member of Jury for the 41st DISFF (2018) and of the pre-selection committee for the 42nd DISFF. His first feature film Woof has been selected by the Mediterranean Film Institute and the Meetings on the Bridge platform and has won the Villa KULT Berlinale Residency award (Germany). In 2020 he won the Best Screenplay award at the DISFF for the film Vouta, directed by Dimitris Zachos. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Io Chaviara is a visual artist (MFA Goldsmiths, University of London) and filmmaker. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens. Her artworks and documentaries have been presented in exhibitions and festivals internationally. She has published articles in international journals, participated in international conferences and co-curated workshops and documentary festivals. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Giannis Haritidis was born in Athens in 1982. He graduated from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physical Science of the National Technical University of Athens and holds an MA in Digital Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts. He has attended seminars in filmmaking and screenwriting. Since 2007 he has been working as a filmmaker on feature and short films, as well as on commercials and music videos. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Christiana Chiranagnostaki was born in Athens. She graduated from the Department of Communication, Media and Culture of the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens and holds an MA in Culture and Documentary Film Production from the University of the Aegean. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). She has worked as a researcher and producer for the Greek documentary TV series Warzone. As a freelancer, she has researched and produced various projects on the Syrian refugee crisis, the Greek financial crisis, immigration, and other social issues, working with major media and production companies internationally (BBC, SRF, FRANCE 4, ZDF, VICE). In 2018, she directed the interactive documentary project The Beggar, a story about the vandalisation and restoration of a sculpture in the centre of Athens. She has also directed Second Floor, a short documentary about the electronic music scene of Athens and June notes, a short film exploring the ideas of loneliness and loss. In the past few years, she has been working on her first feature length documentary entitled Dear Future, a story about the importance of memory on our individual and collective identity, which raises the question of what needs to be salvaged and what forgotten.
Kostis Alevizos was born in Athens in 1988. He studied under a scholarship at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos. In 2017 his script for the short film Weight of the Sea was selected and funded by the «microfilm» programme of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. The film premiered at the Drama International Film Festival, where it received an Honorary Distinction for Photography and an Honorary Distinction for Best Female Actor. In addition, the film won an Honorary Distinction at the 9th Athens International Digital Film Festival, an Honorary Mention at the 13th Larissa International Film Festival for Sissy Toumasi’s acting and was nominated for the 2020 Hellenic Film Academy Awards. The film was selected by the Athens International Film Festival, the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, the United Kingdom No Dialogue Film Festival, the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, the Athens Marathon International Film Festival, the Patras Steps Film Festival and the Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival. In 2019 his first book, entitled Gios (The Son), was published by Vivliopelagos press. In 2020 his script for the short film Τhe Tooth and The Rock was selected and funded by Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation as part of the programme microfilm. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Lydia Antoniou is a curator, filmmaker, and researcher on feminist film collections, based between London and Athens. Growing up with grapheme-colour synaesthesia, she developed a curiosity and interest in utilising theoretical concepts for the production of space through collective storytelling processes. Approaching her architecture and curatorial studies from a feminist perspective, she identifies the urgency to potentialise contemporary art and cinema through the collective performing of social and spatial relations in a way that transcends the binary divisions currently dominating these disciplines. Drawing on and incorporating cult figures from experimental music and poetry, her work is primarily citational and participatory. Populated by friends and influences from her immediate community, her works often cite and incorporate co-creative and collaborative processes and ideas. Having worked in production for the past five years, oscillating between cinema and modern art, she decided to employ moving image as a medium of storytelling in order to construct non-male gaze narratives . In this direction, her two short essay-films The Wife of the Above and Za’atar works towards the construction of an intersectional space of invention and difference; one that would welcome a plurality unconstrained by a binary opposition to maleness. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Dimitris Armenakis is an animation director, born in Athens, Greece. He graduated from the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University, where he directed his first animated short film entitled Absorbed (2017). In 2019, he completed the MA Animation programme of the Royal College of Art in London. During his studies, he directed two animated short films: First Thirst (2018) and All You Can Eat (2019). All You Can Eat participated in more than 40 animation and film festivals around the globe, including: London Short Film Festival, ReAnimania International Animation Film & Comics Arts Festival of Yerevan, Berlin British Shorts Film Festival, Animateka (Slovenia), and Athens International Film Festival. The film was nominated for Best Sound Design at Watersprite Film Festival (London) and for Best International Animated Short Film at UWPG Film Festival (Canada) and at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, while it was awarded the Stratos Stasinos prize for Best Student Film in 2020. At the moment, Dimitris is working on the sequel of All You Can Eat. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Eftychia Iosifidou is a Greek filmmaker. After gaining a degree in Fine Arts, she studied at the Department of Theatre Studies of the Athens and Kapodistrian University of Athens and at Freie Universität Berlin, where she completed part of her studies as an exchange student. She attended several film seminars and workshops and in 2012 she studied Digital Filmmaking at New School.Athens. She has worked for the Month of Performance Art in Berlin and in 2012 she was head of the Young Jury committee during the Athens International Film Festival. Her short films She (2013) and Heterotopie (2014) were screened across Europe. In 2016 she participated in an audiovisual installation shown at the Greek National Opera and in 2017 she attended a Screenplay and Set Design workshop at the Greek National Theatre. Her short film f, completed in 2020 with the support of the Greek Film Centre, was part of the Short Film Picks selection at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Her documentary Iconoclast (2019) was selected for development by the Mediterranean Film Institute and subsequently secured the support of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. In 2021, her essay-podcast My grandmother, Maro was selected and presented at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Since 2015, she has been working as a director, researcher and editor for music videos and TVC, and collaborating with a number of artists and institutes. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Konstanza Kapsali is an Athens based film maker. After completing her studies in Archaeology and Heritage studies (BA, MA) she worked in numerous excavations, cultural institutions and conducted archaeological and ethnographic research in Greece, Turkey, and the Netherlands. She went on to study Visual Anthropology and Documentary Film (MA). Her first short film “Girls In Flower” featured in acclaimed International film festivals in Greece and was awarded the NIGHT Award at the 18th Signos da Noite International Film Festival in Lisbon. She is currently participating in the art project “Narrative Archaeology” by Elevsis 2023 – European Capital of Culture and the “FINDS – STORIES” research project, documenting diachronic mobility in the Balkans through creative object biographies. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). From March 2022 on, she will be a PhD candidate at the LUCA School of Arts in Belgium.
Her practice draws on observational cinema, sensory ethnography, and the archaeological metaphor. Her thematic focus varies, but the notions of memory, femininity, the sense of belonging, nostalgia and the unravelling of history are often recurrent.
Iris grew up in Corfu, Greece. She is a director and performer. As a performer, she has won the Grand Prix Europa 2015 with AndCompany&Co for the performance Orpheus in der Oberwelt and has performed in numerous international theatres and festivals, including: HAU Hebbel am Uffer (Berlin), Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Forum Freis Theater (Dusseldorf), Hippodrome (France), steirischer herbst (Austria), and Belluard Bollwerk International (Switzerland). She has also participated in documenta 14, in the performance Round-up by Mary Zygouri. A firm believer in the therapeutic potential of the performing arts, Iris expanded her knowledge by studying dramatherapy in Berlin. Goads, her first film as a director, has received numerous prizes and special mentions in a number of international film festivals, including: the Drama International Short Film Festival (Greece), the Athens International Film Festival (Greece) and the Trieste Film Festival (Italy), while it was named Best Short Film at the BUFF International Film Festival in Sweden. In addition, Goads was officially selected by the ZINEBI International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (Spain), the Riga International Film Festival (Latvia), the Go Short –International Film Festival Nijmegen (the Netherlands), and the Rhode Island International Film Festival (USA). She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). In her filmmaking practice, Iris is interested in examining the liberating power of trauma as an expression of the journey of our soul and of our human nature.
Ion Papaspyrou was born in 1987. I am not here right now, his latest short film, was screened in more than 15 international film festivals, including the ZINEBI International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao; the REGARD – International Short Film Festival of Saguenay; and Concorto Film Festival. The film won the Best Screenplay award at the Athens International Film Festival and a special award at the Drama International Short Film Festival. He is an alumni of Torino Film Lab Extended (2019); Zurich Film Festival Academy (2019) and of the Mediterranean Film Institute Script 2 Film workshop (2020). He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
Effie Pappa is an award-winning director and animator based in Athens and Europe. Her work explores characters and discusses universal themes depicting human concerns through allegory, absurdism and black humour. Her films have been screened and awarded internationally; with her stand out film My Stuffed Granny, which won twenty awards for best short film during 2014; (Edinburgh Film Festival, Tokyo Anime Awards, Palm Springs International Film Festival and International Film Festival of East Hampton, New York, amongst others) and nominated in hundreds. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). She also directs for commercials and music videos —with the Wild World by Cat Stevens and The Little Elephant by George Hadjipieris being considered the most popular ones. She is currently writing and directing her most recent short film, a stop motion entitled In between. Her work has been featured in the magazines Rolling Stone, Metal Magazine, The Fader, and the media BFI Showcase, Short of the Week and ABC, among others.
Dimitris Tsakaleas is a director and film producer from Greece. He holds the Filmmaking Certificate from the London Film Academy (Short Courses) and has graduated from the School of Film Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, specializing in Audiovisual Film Production. His research study focuses on the distribution strategies of the entertainment company A24 in the time of social media. He has worked as a producer in several short films, commercials and music videos, and on a feature film. He has attended Berlinale Talents (2020) and Sarajevo Talents (2016) campuses and was chosen to participate in the Sarajevo City of Film Fund (2018). His films have travelled to prestigious film festivals across the world (Toronto International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Clermont – Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Sarajevo International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the annual convention Comic – Con IFF (USA), Gijon International Film Festival (Spain), etc.), while his feature film was independently distributed in Greece. He is an associate producer on Zacharias Mavroeidis’ upcoming film, The Summer with Carmen. He is part of a directing duo with Lida Vartzioti with whom they are currently working on their first feature film, and a member of the European Film Academy (EFA). He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021).
After his BA in Psychology, he wrote and directed his first short film The Voice (2012). In 2013 he moved to London to study cinema, where he wrote and directed his second short “Simon Says” (2015), which was awarded Best Short Film in Athens International Film Festival, selected by various international short film festivals, and sold to a Japanese national TV network. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). His third short film “Soul Food”(2020), was selected for script development by the EU funded Midpoint Shorts, funded by the Greek Film Centre and the French Centre National du Cinema, and won the awards of Best Director, and Best Male Actor at the 44th International Short Film Festival in Drama. Currently, he is in the screenplay development process of his first feature film, which was selected to participate in the MFI Script 2 Film Lab 2021, of the Mediterranean Film Institute.