
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).