The Drama Festival celebrates 30 years since its internationalisation, presenting a special tribute that features a selection of 15 films, which won the Grand Prix in the International Competition Section from 1995 to September 2024. For the purposes of this programme, the Drama Festival restored and digitised rare material—mainly from the 1990s—sourced from Beta tapes and 16mm and 35mm film prints, contributing to the preservation of these invaluable works. This initiative is not limited to the archival value of these rare short films, but also highlights the evolution of short filmmaking across the world over the past three decades.

Among the guests will be Karethe Linaae, winner of the very first Grand Prix (1995), with her Canadian film Off Key. The year 1995 marked a turning point for the Festival. The late Artistic Director Antonis Papadopoulos, responding to the growing interest of the international film community in Greece’s national short film festival, took the bold step of internationalising the event, under the presidency of thenmayor of Drama, Margaritis Tzimas. Thus, the country’s official short film festival entered the international cinematic arena, launching a long and fruitful journey. Since its beginnings in 1978, the Drama Festival had already been enriching its programme with tributes to international film cultures, from France to Argentina, and from Japan and China to Germany and Italy, alongside tributes to major short film festivals (such as Cannes, Oberhausen, Krakow, São Paulo, Clermont-Ferrand) and acclaimed film schools (such as Lodz, FEMIS, VGIK), a tradition it continues to uphold successfully to this day. Following its international expansion, the Festival started to bring attention to films and filmmakers from previously little-known film cultures, such as Kyrgyzstan. Over the past thirty years, the International Competition section has featured important filmmakers, including globally renowned figures such as Terry Gilliam, Kenneth Branagh, and James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). One of the most significant milestones in this remarkable journey was the short film Next Floor by the now-celebrated French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (Dune), which won the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at DISFF in 2008—proving once again that the Drama Festival continues to introduce us to the directors of tomorrow.