2026
Eva Stefani
Eva Stefani was born in the United States and lives in Athens. She has directed over 30 films, ranging from ethnographic to experimental cinema. Her work has been screened at numerous international festivals, earning international accolades (Oberhausen, IDFA, Cinema du Reel, FIPRESCI, etc.). Film festivals such as Oberhausen, Europe autour de l’Europe, and universities such as New York University and Columbia University in New York have organized retrospectives of her work. Since 2000, she has participated in international visual art exhibitions, most notably Documenta 14 and the Venice Biennale. Her latest visual art work, titled “Bright Cave,” is an installation commissioned by EMST, as part of the exhibition “If Women Ruled the World.”
In addition to her artistic work, Eva Stefani is a professor of film in the Department of Communication and Mass Media at the University of Athens. She studied Political Science and Law and subsequently pursued graduate studies in Film Theory and Anthropology at New York University (NYU), and film with an emphasis on documentary at the VARAN school in Paris and at the National Film & TV School in the UK. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on representations of Greece in ethnographic cinema (Panteion University, 1997). Her latest film, titled The Heart of the Bull, is a portrait of the director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou.
Silas Michalakas
Silas Michalakas studied Archaeology, History, and Philosophy of Science and Technology, as well as Visual Anthropology. He has worked at the Ministry of Culture as an archaeologist and folklorist-ethnologist, as well as an independent researcher and documentary filmmaker. He has taught educational programs and seminars on the history of ethnographic cinema and the production and direction of ethnographic films. Documentaries for which he has worked as a producer, director, and researcher have been screened at festivals in Greece and abroad, while other audiovisual works of his have been used to record elements of Greece’s intangible cultural in Greece in UNESCO’s global representative list. From 2017 to 2024, he worked at Ethnofest-Athens Ethnographic Film Festival as head of production and educational activities, while he also works as a Special Technical Laboratory Staff Member at the Audiovisual Media Laboratory of the Department of Communication and Mass Media at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Panagiotis Evangelidis
Panagiotis Evangelidis was born in Athens, where he lives and works. He graduated from the Athens Law School and then traveled and lived in various parts of the world for many years. He is a writer and film director, mainly in the field of documentaries. He is also a screenwriter and is involved in everything else related to writing. He has published four novels and made ten documentaries and video art films.
2025
MARIA LOUKA
Maria Louka is a documentarist, script-writer and journalist. She has undertaken the script and editorship for many television programmes and documentaries. In 2023 the documentary she co-directed, “Grief – Those Who Remain” (documentary award in the Greek Film Festival in Berlin) premiered, while she is currently working on her next documentary, “Survivors” (ERT award in the Pitching Forum of Thessaloniki Festival) where she co-signs with Nina Maria Paschalidou.
As a journalist with an expertise in gender issues and human rights she has worked with many media. She has delivered multiple lectures on topics of her interests in research and theory.
For her work, she has been awarded with the Journalist Award “Eleni Vlachou”, with the Migration Media Award, and she was been nominated four times for the European Press Prize. In March 2021, her first novella, “A woman apologises” («Μία γυναίκα απολογείται») was published by “Topos” publications. She was participated in writing five more books.
THANASIS NEOFOTISTOS
THANASIS NEOFOTISTOS is a Film Director, Writer & Architect. Member of European Film Academy (EFA), Greek Film Academy (EAK), Berlinale Talents alumnus & was for 5 years Head Programmer of Student Int’l Competition of Drama DISFF. Nevertheless, most importantly, member of the LGBTQI+ community! His short films have competed in 75th Venice IFF, in 44th Sundance, in 75th Locarno IFF, in 44th TIFF Toronto & won awards in 42nd Clermont-Ferrand, 47th TIFF Toronto, 36th Busan IFF and 30th Sao Paolo ISFF, amongst others. He is currently in the process of completing his first feature film, THE BOY WITH THE LIGHT-BLUE EYES (*aka PETER AND THE WOLF), which he envisions as a dark coming-of-age folktale!
JANIS WESTPHAL
Janis Westphal is a director, author, and creative producer based in Berlin and Cologne. Born in 1988 in Thuringia, he studied Journalism, Communication Sciences, and Global History before turning to filmmaking. His passion ignited in 2011 while filming a short documentary in Tanzania. After working in television production for three years, he studied Directing and Documentary Film at filmArche Berlin (2014–2018) and co-founded the SEVENPEAKS filmmakers collective, securing substantial public film funding. From 2023 to 2025, he studied the MA Film – Co-Creation and Innovation for Social Change at the International Film School in Cologne.
Janis explores both fiction and documentary, often focusing on unseen worlds. His films have screened at many international festivals, among those three times at PDSFF. His fictional shorts BOLZMANN (2021) and FLOW AND EBB (2023) tackle masculinity and mental health. His documentary Dreyfus Drei (2021, co-directed with Ella Dreyfus) examines the intersection of personal trauma and historical memory, while his debut feature ONE HAND THE OTHER (2023) explores the life of a woman in a wheelchair, questioning our perception of help.
Currently, he is producing two feature films: Prințese, a queer love story set amid the harsh realities of field labor, and HAUS DER TRINKER, a raw look at alcoholism and structural support in a Berlin shelter.
In all his work, Janis seeks to illuminate moments of hope, humor, and humanity within difficult realities, revealing the fundamental need for belonging and connection.
KARLA CRNČEVIĆ
Karla Crnčević is a dramaturge, film worker and researcher exploring politics of images and sound through various formats and work conditions. Her films and video works have been exhibited and awarded domestically and internationally (FidMarseille, Zinebi, Dokufest…). She is one of the founders and organisers of the Kino Unseen dealing with memory and re-activation of different cinema spaces. Currently she is researching audiovisual archives related to AFŽ (Antifascist Front of Women of Yugoslavia)
2024
Sofia Exarchou, director and screenwriter
She was born in Athens. She studied electrical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, film direction at the Stavrakos Film School and theater at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. She pursued post-graduate film studies at ESAV in Toulouse, France. In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Screenwriter’s & Director’s Lab. Park, her first feature film, premiered at Toronto IFF and San Sebastian IFF, where it won the New Directors Award. Since then, it has participated and won awards in numerous international film festivals. Her sophomore film, Animal, was selected and participated in L’Atelier(Festival de Cannes) and Mia Roma Market. In August 2023, Animal premiered at Locarno IFF, where it won the Award for Best Performance. Animal also won Best Film Award at Thessaloniki IFF, Cork IFF and Vancouver IFF plus numerous other awards in various festivals such as Best Performance Award at Les Arcs FF and Thessaloniki IFF, Fipresci Award at Mannheim IFF etc.
Chipo Zhou, entrepreneur and film festival curator
Chipo Zhou is an entrepreneur and film festival curator with over 15 years of experience in the arts industry. She advocated for the transformation of the film industry in Zimbabwe early in her career at the International Images Film Festival for Women and, more recently, in South Africa through her work at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). Chipo delivered five consecutive iterations of the DIFF and increased African and LGBTQ+ representation from 20% to more than 50% during that time as Festival Director & Curator. Over the years, she has created various platforms to develop local South African films by providing support for zero-budget filmmakers; Isiphethu at DIFF is a major one. She developed and delivered a film marketing and distribution course for emerging filmmakers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2021 to bridge the gap between the theory and the practical aspects of the field for emerging, underrepresented filmmakers. In 2018, she led the team that hosted the BRICS International Film Festival in partnership with the Ministry of Arts and Culture in South Africa as part of the broader engagements around BRICS. She has sat on various international film festival juries and contributed to the creation of different training programs within the film industry. She sits on various international film festival juries and participates in various film-related forums.
Carol Sansour, founder and director of the Athens Palestine Film Festival
Carol Sansour is a seasoned communications strategist, who brings with her over twenty years of experience creating and implementing cultural and social programs for public and private sector organizations. Sansour has led projects and initiatives including community mobilization, awareness campaigns and events; to build local capacities and promote development. Sansour is also a published poet and writer. Her work is translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish and German.
Tasos Melemenidis, Head of Programming & Acquisitions, Cinobo
Born and raised in Eleftheroupolis, Kavala. He studied Computer Science at Aristotle University, but found his way to the cinema, for which he started writing in 2006. For several years he wrote critiques, tributes and cinema news for Lifo and Cinemagazine, collaborated with the Athens International Film Festival and in editions of the Thessaloniki Film Festival. He currently curates the programme of the Greek streaming platform Cinobo.
2023
Artemis Anastasiadou
Director and screenwriter from Thessaloniki. She studied theatre at the Fine Arts faculty of the University of Thessaloniki and film directing at the University of Texas at Austin. Her latest film ‘To Vancouver’ was screened and received an honourable mention at the Berlin Film Festival (2022) and won the IRIS award for best short fiction by the Greek Academy of Cinematography. Her film ‘I am Mackenzie’ (2019) won the Grand Jury Prize as the best Texas short at SXSW 2019. After spending over a decade in film and documentary editing, she turned to film teaching in 2017.
Zacharias Mavroeidis
He studied architecture in Thessaloniki, theatre in Madrid and cinema in Athens and Cuba. He participated in the Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campus and is a fellow of the Artworks programme of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. He teaches screenwriting at faculties in Athens. In September 2022 he was elected secretary general of the Greek Film Academy. His documentary ACROSS HER BODY (ΣΤΟ ΣΩΜΑ ΤΗΣ) participated in the International Competition of the 60th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. His second feature-length fiction, APOSTRATOS, won the Audience and Youth Awards of the Student Committee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki at the International Competition of the 60th Thessaloniki Film Festival as well as the IRIS Award for Best Screenplay 2020 and the Best Film Award at the Kinenova 2020 IFF. The release of his new film THE CARMEN’S CAKE is expected in 2023. At the same time, he participated in Cinekid FF’s Script Lab with his feature animation NINE LIVES LEFT, an adaptation of his novel SEVEN SOULS IN THE EYE (Polaris Publications, 2014).
2022
Ines Johnson-Spain
Ines Johnson-Spain is an independent German/Togolese filmmaker based in Berlin. She studied Scienes of Religions at Freie Universität Berlin (FU) and was a guest student for Fine Arts and painting at University of Arts Berlin. During the many years as a scenic painter and in other positions of the art departments of national and international film-productions she worked among others with Peter Greenaway, Anders Thomas Jensen, Lana Wachowsky, Andrej Swjaginzew. Johnson-Spain teaches scenic painting at Film University Babelsberg and worked for different film jurys. Since 2002 she develops and realizes her own documentary film projects. Her work focuses on intimate portraits that explore the notion of self and affiliation. More recently she is working together with two other colleagues on a fictional feature-length script. Her films have been screened and awarded at prestigious local and international film festivals, galleries and exhibitions.
Robbie Eksiel
A journalist and a film critic, Robbie Eksiel was a film writer for the daily newspaper Ethnos from 1993 and its chief film reviewer from 1998 to 2017, a writer at the Greek film magazine Cinema from its foundation in 1989 to its last issue in 2017, and a contributor at several weekly or monthly variety magazines through the years. He has served as artistic director at the Greek Film Center (2007-2009) and as a member of the governing council at the Greek Association of Film Critics (2006-2016). A FIPRESCI, European Film Academy and Greek Film Academy member, he has also served in several FIPRESCI juries (Toronto, Tromso, etc) and as a member of the Discovery Awards Nominations jury for the EFA for three consecutive years. He is a contributor at the film site www.flix.gr , a programming consultant at the New York City Greek Film Festival and the artistic director of the Larissa International Film Festival.
Kostis Theodosopoulos
Kostis Theodosopoulos studied at the Department of Communication, Media, and Culture of Panteion University and worked as coordinator of film masterclasses and open discussions at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. He moved on to take up the position of head of programming for the Athens International Film Festival, which he held for more than a decade while also pursuing further studies in film. His debut short film “Rouge” had its International premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2020 and its North American premiere at Palm Springs ShortFest 2020. It won 3 prizes in Greece’s Drama Short Film Festival – National Competition (Best Newcomer Director, Best Screenplay, Best Make-Up).
2020
Alin Tasciyan
Alin Tasciyan was born in 1969 in Istanbul. She graduated from the University of Istanbul with a BA in journalism and public relations in 1991. She began working for the Milliyet Art Review and Milliyet daily newspaper the same year. During the 16 year period in this media group she has been a correspondent, film critic and the editor of the Art Review. Meanwhile she made various cinema programs for the cultural channel of the Turkish Radio and Television TRT 2 including the Magic of Cinema which screened almost 500 classic films for 10 years. She programmed and presented the Thematic Films Ribbon for the news channel 24 between 2009 – 2012. She worked as a critic and a columnist for the Star daily newspaper 2008 – 2014. She is currently a film critic for the channel of culture&art TRT2 and writing for the culture&art website sanatatak.com.
Tasciyan has been an advisor and programmer for many film festivals including Istanbul IFF and Antlaya IFF in Turkey. She is currently an advisor for Adana International Film Festival, Flying Broom Women’s Film Festival in Ankara and she is the head programmer for International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival. She has served in many national and international film festival juries. She is a member of the European Film Academy.
She had been the vice president and president of FIPRESCI, International Federation of Film Critics between 2009-2017. She is currently the Deputy Secretary of FIPRESCI.
Maria Paradeisi
Maria Paradeisi is associate professor of History and Theory of Film, in the Department of Communication, Media and Culture, of Panteion University, Athens. She studied Law, Political Science and Cinema (Aristotle University of Thessalonica, Paris X and Paris VIII) and obtained her Doctorate Degree in Political Sociology. in 1984. She worked for Greek radio, television and cinema from 1985 to 1989 and directed films for Greek television. She is the author of the book Cinematic Narration and Delinquency in the Greek Cinema (1994-2004), 2006. Typothito Press, 2013. Her most recent publication is the collective volume, Maria Paradeisi, Aphrodite Nikolaidou (eds), From the early to the Contemporary Greek Cinema. Questions of Methodology, Theory, History. Gutenberg 2017.
Jaqueline Lentzou
Jaqueline (Athens, 1989), graduate of London Film School (2013), is a screenwriter and director. Her work revolves around non-traditional family structures, dream construction, love and the lack of it. Her shorts have competed and been awarded on an international scale (ALEPOU, Locarno 2016, HIWA, Berlin 2017, HECTOR MALO: THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR, Cannes 2018). Retrospectives of her work have taken place in Vienna, Montreal, Naimen. Jaqueline just finished shooting her first feature film ‘SELINI, 66 QUESTIONS’.