Argyris Papadimitropoulos heading the National Competition Jury
Argyris Papadimitropoulos is the Chairman of the jury at the 43rd Short Film Festival’s National Competition.
Known to the general public for his feature films Suntan, Wasted Youth, and Bank Bang, as well as his bold, youthful and innovative perspective, he has been awarded for his work in Greek cinema, and he is active as a producer. In the past he had competed at the Drama Film Festival, to which he returns in a new post, one of great responsibility.
The Festival and the Artistic Directror, Yannis Sakaridis, are pleased to welcome him to Drama, trusting that his “fresh” eye will be of great benefit to new directors.
Below is a note from Argyris Papadimitropoulos:
“When I was still fantasizing about one day making movies, the Drama Film Festival seemed an elusive dream. This would give us the urge to and courage to dream of bigger festivals.
I visited as a student to see what went on in the world, later (twice) as a competing director, and a few more times as a producer, or as a filmmaker strolling around watching my friends’ films. Then came bigger journeys with my feature films, to more distant destinations, and for over ten years I did not board the train to Drama. This year I am returning to admire the creations of new directors, who will soon travel around the world, and I return as Chairman of the jury, in excellent company to be announced soon.
I wish the very best of luck to every new creator and to the new administration of the festival”.
Argyris Papadimitropoulos was born in Athens, and studied in Great Britain.
The first two short films he directed, Ekkremes (2003) and Tender (2004), were screened and honored in numerous festivals. His first feature film, Bank Bang (2009), was a commercial success in Greece (500,000 tickets), received positive reviews, and won Best First Film Director at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards. His next film, Wasted Youth (2011), opened the 40th Rotterdam International Film Festival and was screened at many others around the world (Toronto, Karlovy Vary etc). His latest film, Suntan (2016), which also premiered at Rotterdam, received several awards internationally (e.g. Best International Feature Film at the Edinburgh IFF), and was nominated for the European Parliament’s Lux prize. He has got more than 300 advertisements under his belt as well as public service campaigns for Amnesty International, Action Aid, and others. He has produced important films of contemporary Greek cinema, such as Boy eating the bird’s food and At home. At the moment, the director is in the post production stage of his first English-speaking film, entitled Monday, a romantic drama produced by Faliro House (Greece), Automatik Entertainment (USA), and DJ Films (UK).
As part of its pre-festival events, the Drama Film Festival will present the film Suntan by Argyris Papadimitropoulos, on Saturday, August 22 at the Alexandros Open-Air Cinema in Drama.
