About Us

Drama Short Film Festival was first held in 1978, on the initiative of the Drama Film Club. The response of filmmakers, as well as the public, was enthusiastic from the very beginning. A few years later, the Festival was adopted by the Municipality of Drama and then, in the mid-eighties, by the Greek State. In 1995 the Festival became International.

The Festival was established in 1978 and, since 1996, it is a Municipal Enterprise, whose purpose is: to promote and disseminate the art of cinema, and especially of the short film, in Greece and abroad, to develop a spirit of friendship and cooperation between filmmakers from all over the world, to organize screenings of Greek and foreign short films; film tributes; seminars, conferences, lectures and fora; art exhibitions; musical concerts; and theatrical performances, throughout the year, in the city of Drama, in Greece and abroad and to collaborate with similar institutions, both in Greece and abroad, towards the fostering and development of short film.

Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF)

Drama Premises
9 Agias Varvaras st. Drama 66100, Greece
Tel: (+30) 25210 47575

Athens Premises
71 Emm. Benaki st. Athens 10681, Greece
Tel: (+30) 210 3300309

e-mail: info@dramafilmfestival.gr

Screening venues

Municipal Conservatory

Olympia Cinema

Open Air Cinema Alexandros

Drive-In D. Krahtidis

A message from the Mayor of Drama Mr. Christodoulos Mamsakos

We are overjoyed to welcome you to the hospitable city of Drama, to the world of the art of filmmaking and to our great celebration of cinema and culture: the 45^th Drama International Short Film Festival.

The Drama International Short Film Festival once again welcomes and embraces all actors, directors, producers, contributors, and lovers of cinema.

A frontier town, Drama is home to passionate people with inquiring minds. Forty-five years ago, it birthed the Drama International Short Film Festival, the Child of Art and the most prestigious institution of our city.

For the duration of the Festival, Drama is illuminated by the light and magic of cinema, which has become a natural, integral part of its cultural identity.

With renewed image and content, the 45^th Drama International Short Film Festival looks towards a new day, eager and rejuvenated.

The operation of the new Film Department of the Hellenic Open University in Drama is expected to strengthen the Festival and showcase our city as one of the most important cinematic hubs of the Balkans and Europe. It will help transform Drama into a city identified with education, as well as with the promotion of the film-makers of tomorrow.

We welcome you all, therefore, to the historic town of Drama; it is a town of martyrdom, a town of running waters and civilisation, the capital of short films, and host to our great celebration of cinema: the Drama International Short Film Festival.

Christodoulos Mamsakos
Mayor of Drama

Greetings from the President of the Cultural Organization of Drama Short Film Festival Mr. Georgios Dermetzis

Dear friends of short film,

Given the ongoing bloody war in Ukraine – yet another black page in modern history – the least we can say is that 2022 is proving to be by all accounts a critically significant year for global history, with terrifying projections in every possible level. It is particularly cruel and unfair for those innocent civilians who are losing their lives on a daily basis, while being forced to abandon their homes and their country. Humanity ought to honestly and urgently face and defeat itself. It ought to recognize and promote the true values of our existence in this planet with mindfulness and coherence, aiming for a peaceful and civilised coexistence of all the people in this Earth.

The Drama International Short Film Festival, in its 45th edition and international presence, sends a continuous message to everyone. Culture and the arts are our vital breath, a creative force that brings everyone on this planet closer together.

Despite the global dire circumstances, 2022 has taken a very different turn as far as the city of Drama and the Film Festival are concerned. A dream of ours for which we’ve been striving for years, has finally come true. The Ministry of Education approved a BA course in Cinema Studies at the Hellenic Open University and the workshops of the BA will take place in Drama, in collaboration with the Municipality of Drama and Drama International Short Film Festival. At the same time, Drama Film Festival will develop projects and common actions with HOU, thus maximizing the benefits for aspiring young cinematographers.

At the same time, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and the essential contribution of Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports, responsible for Contemporary Culture, Nicholas Yatromanolakis, the former military camp “Andrikakis” will be turned into a cluster of audiovisual entrepreneurship as well as the Festival’s new headquarters thanks to funds guaranteed by the Recovery and Resilience Fund. In addition to the above, the Festival’s two main screening and cultural activities’ venues, namely the Municipal Conservatory and Olympia Cinema, will be refurbished and modernized.

Our collabotaror Dimitris Papazoglou was awarded with the Golden Graphic Design for his work on the new visual identity of the Festival, a very important distinction that is added to the great sensation that has caused to the international and Greek cinema audiences.

Two grandiose educational programs were completed: “Cinematherapy”, under the auspices of Hellenic Ministry of Cultures, and “Animation”, with the support of Raycap company, in schools of the Prefecture of Drama with great success and impact.

The artistic director with the Festival team and collaborators with their professional and passionate work wrapped the 45th edition. Innovation in programming and new collaborations with important entities and individual cinema creators and lovers, from Greece and all over the world, will be part of this year’s festival edition, and will invigorate the festival’s relations with the film industry and the new film makers, the cinema students from Greece and abroad, which we value very much, thus rendering a unique refinement to the festival’s image and contribution.

The very important collaborations initiated with the Onassis Foundation, ΕΚΟΜΕ (National Center of Audiovisual Media & Communication), ΕΚΚ (Greek Film Center), RAYCAP, ΚΥΚΛΩΨ and many other Entities are the main reasons of success of this leading institution.

Under the ongoing and unwavering support of the Ministry of Culture, the Prefecture of East Macedonia & Thrace, and the Municipality of Drama, the excellent cooperation with the Greek cinema makers, and, of course, our love and passion for this institution, we will deliver our best yet another year.

Good luck to all!!

Georgios Dermetzis
President of the Cultural Organization – Drama’s Short Film Festival

Artistic Director

Yannis Sakaridis

A message from the Artistic Director Yannis Sakaridis

For 45 years, the Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF) has been featuring the debut films of up-and-coming directors. The Festival has hosted distinguished directors such as Frieda Liappa in 1980, Yannis Economides in 1992, Yorgos Lanthimos in 1995, and Vasilis Kekatos in 2015.

Through the award-winning films of its National Competition section, the Drama International Short Film Festival travelled to more than 40 Greek cities during the past year, while numerous events were held in countries like Argentina, the USA, China, France, Serbia, Cyprus, Albania, and Ireland.

Furthermore, under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Festival’s student programme ‘Cinematherapy’ visited dozens of primary schools and high schools in our country, and met with thousands of students. We were delighted to see our associate, Dimitris Papazoglou, win the golden EBGE Award for Best Graphic Design, for his work in creating our new identity.

The main guest of this year’s event is Mr. Paweł Pawlikowski, who will hold a cinematherapy discussion to analyse his artistic career from a psychological perspective; four of the Oscar-winning director’s documentaries will also be projected, all of which, since their creation in the beginning of the 1990s and to this day, remain relevant and somewhat prophetic.

We are also delighted to introduce the new National Student Competition Programme this year, which received 100 film submissions from students!

This year’s event will be hosting four features: Documentaries by Oscar-winner Paweł Pawlikowski, visual art and films by Basim Magdy, the “Motherland, I See You” feature of the Hellenic Film Academy, and animation films from the Covid Programme of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. We will also be introducing the TSFM Word-Frame Greece workshop, an intensive workshop aiming to guide eight directors and/or screenwriters to create a short fiction or hybrid film, in collaboration with the Torino Short Film Market.

We will attend a masterclass with Yannis Economides, while two members of the Cannes Festival, Claire Diao and Florian Fernandez, will participate in a panel discussing the short film market.

After watching tens of thousands of hours of film, the Festival’s team is excited to present this year’s programme, promising an event filled with short masterpieces and fresh discoveries from Greece and around the world.

Yannis Sakaridis studied Photography and Art History at London College of Printing and film direction at the University of Westminster. He has been a member of London Film Makers Co-Op for many years, where he started to direct short films as BUSKERS (1995), SQUADDING IN HACKNEY (1995), DOGKILLERS (1996), MAUSOLEUM (1998), and also some experimental films, such as PARIS (1993), DECAY (1996). He kept on working as a professional film editor for feature films in Greece and Great Britain, such as SCREAMIN’ JAY HAWKINS: I PUT A SPELL ON ME by Nikos Triantafyllidis (2001), THE KING by Nikos Grammatikos (2002), A WOMAN IN WINTER by Richard Jobson (2006), for film trailers for Warner Bros, such as MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD & EVIL by Clint Eastwood (1997), THE GENERAL by John Burman (1998), EYES WIDE SHUT by Stanley Kubrick (1999), and also for many British TV documentaries, such as VELVET GOLDMINE for Channel 4, CLASH OF THE TITANS: RANGERS/CELTICS for BBC2, CARNIVAL FACES for National Geographic.

After 18 years in London, he wrote and directed the short film TRUTH (2006), which was the first film he shot in Athens, where he lives since 2007. His first feature film as a director, WILD DUCK (2013), starring Themis Bazaka and Alexandros Logothetis, was premiered at Toronto Film Festival and traveled to festivals around the world.

His second feature as a screenwriter/producer/director, AMERIKA SQUARE (2016) starring Yannis Stankoglou, Makis Papadimitriou, Themis Bazaka and Vassilis Kukalani was produced by Greek National Television and the Greek Film Center. It was awarded in many international festivals and it was the official selection of Greece for the Academy Awards (2018). The film was distributed in the USA, China, Spain, Eastern Europe (HBO), England, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.

Hollywood Reporter wrote for this film: “Amerika Square is overall one of the best European films to date on the subject of immigration in all its painful implications”. He has participated two times in Drama Film Festival with fiction shorts: MAUSOLEUM (1998), TRUTH (2006, Special Award for Fiction, Best Music Award) He has been a member of its national juries twice. He has also been a member of an Advisory Committee for Short Films at the Greek Film Center.

Filmography (as a director):

Amerika Square (2016) Scriptwriter-Director-Producer.
Audience Award at the 7 th Peking Film Festival. Erasmus Youth Jury Award, Trieste Film Festival. Best Film Award at Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. Best Editing Award by the Greek Film Academy, Best Film Award Open Frontiers Contest. FIPRESCI Award at the 57 th Thessaloniki IFF, Special Mention for Vassilis Kukalani at the 57 th Thessaloniki IFF, Youth Award at the 57 th Thessaloniki IFF, Audience Award at the 3 rd Burgas FF, New Directors Competition, 52nd Chicago Film Festival. Flash Forward Competition, 21st Busan International Film Festival.

Wild Duck (2013) Scriptwriter-Director-Producer.
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 2013), Raindance Film Festival, Busan Film Festival (Flash Forwrd), Chicago Film Festival, New Directors Competition, Mostra – Sao Paulo, In Competition, Thessaloniki IFF, In Competition, International Film Festival of India, Goa.

Truth (2006, short film) Scriptwriter-Director.
47Th Thessaloniki IFF Θεσσαλονίκης (Special Mention in Quality Awards), Raindance Film Festival (Tiscali Best Shorts Selection), 29th Short Film Festival in Drama (Special Award, Best Music Award).

Mausoleum (1998, short film) Raindance Film Festival, Drama International Film Festival, Orange Best Shorts.
Dogkillers (1996, short film),
Decay (1996, short film),
Buskers (1995, short film),
A poem for 4 countries (1995, short film),
Squadding in Hackney (1995, short documentary),
La Valeta (1994, short film),
Paris (1993, short film).