Visitors to the 48th Drama Short Film Festival will have the opportunity to watch retrospective tributes to the short films of two distinguished filmmakers, alongside the competition programs.

DISFF will have the pleasure of presenting six short films by Angelos Frantzis dating from 1992 to 2014, and eight short films shot by Helena Wittmann from 2004 to 2025, thus showing the evolution of their work over time.

For the first time in Greece, the entire body of short films by the two artists is being presented as part of a broader effort by DISFF to bring the public into contact with the early work of distinguished creators. These films are often hard to find, as in the case of Wittman, while for the complete presentation of Angelos Frantzis’ short films, the Festival proceeded to digitize them—a practice that is high on the agenda of DISFF’s new artistic director, Giorgos Angelopoulos, with the aim of preserving and promoting Greek short films.

The two artists will participate in this year’s jury committees: Angelos Frantzis as a member of the National Competition jury and Helena Wittmann as a member of the International Competition jury.

Angelos Frantzis

Angelos Frantzis is a director and screenwriter. He was born in Athens and studied cinema at INSAS in Brussels. His films (Polaroid, A Dog’s Dream, In the Forest, Symptom, Still River, Eftihia, Murphy’s Law) have won awards and been screened at many international festivals. For several years, he worked as a film critic and was involved in mixed media projects that have been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Athens Festival, and Onassis Cultural Center.

Angelos Frantzis was first introduced to Greek audiences at the 1992 Drama Festival with his short film Small Stories About People and Oranges. This was followed by Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? (1993) and Nineteen (1995).

When, in 1997, he and Stratis Vougioukas shot Hollow World, a short film in black and white Super 8, they wrote the following manifesto, which they brought with them to Drama:

MANIFESTO OF HOLLOW WORLD
(and not only)

We want a cinema defined by our walks, our encounters, our loves. Films written in parks, streets, and squares.

We want a cinema that does not dictate but teaches us to see reality from the beginning.

We want to have fun.

We want cinema that is cinematic, theatrical, literary, musical, pictorial, poetic, realistic, political, imaginative, and alive.

We want a cinema whose ethics define its style and whose style mirrors its ethics.

We want to make films the way we walk, breathe, think, talk, and dream.

We want to accustom the audience to the unusual.

We want to make cinema that depends as little as possible on money.

We want to make cinema that is playful and therefore serious.

We want to say that cinema has never been a window into the world. Cinema is a hole in the world, and “Hollow World” is the manifesto of our cinema.

Helena Wittmann

Helena Wittmann is an artist and filmmaker based in Hamburg. Her films, including her most recent feature film Human Flowers of Flesh (2022) and her first feature film Drift (2017), have been screened internationally at major film festivals and exhibitions (including the Locarno and Venice Film Festivals, Tate Modern, MoMA, Toronto Film Festival, New York International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Mar del Plata, Oberhausen, Ann Arbor, Viennale, FID Marseille, and FICUNAM), winning numerous awards.

She was a teacher at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts from 2015 to 2018 and worked as a mentor at the Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola film school in San Sebastian, Spain. In addition to her directing work, she creates installations and works as a director of photography with other directors and artists.

According to Vasilis Bourikas, curator of the tribute, “Drama International Short Film Festival has always had as its main feature, the discovery and promotion of youth, elements that are reflected in all its competitive programs. Retrospectives, on the other hand, are by nature dedicated to creators and filmographies that have reached artistic maturity, often presenting their early short films as a prism through which to examine their creative beginnings. Helena Wittmann’s cinema offers us a rare opportunity to bridge these two realities. This is just one of the many bridges that Wittmann creates that characterize her work. Fortunately for us, she continues to build them with her short films, alongside her feature films. ”

The tribute will also feature her latest work A Thousand Waves Away (2025), which “combines many of the elements that make up the sensory cinematic experience she offers us, that activates all the senses, even touch.”

AND A FEW MORE

This year, the Drama Festival celebrates 30 years of internationalization by presenting a selection of films that have won the Grand Prix from 1995 to the present. One of the most important milestones in this exciting journey was the short film “Next Floor” by the now famous French-Canadian creator Denis Villeneuve, director of “Dune” and the new James Bond film, which won the Grand Prix for best short film at DISFF in 2008, confirming that every year Drama Short Film Festival introduces us to the filmmakers who will be leaving their mark in the future.

The 48th edition will present two more tributes: films created at the Drama Film Festival’s Short Film Workshop by residents of Drama, starring the city itself, and student films resulting from the “Film Writing, Practice and Research” program by the School of Applied Arts and Sustainable Design of the Hellenic Open University.

Presentation of the programme DISFF 48 – 2025

Tuesday , July 8

Last night, during a lovely evening with booze, music and cinema surprises on the packed terrace of the Lais Open Air Cinema, the new artistic director of the Drama International Short Film Festival George Angelopoulos presented this year’s Festival’s visual identity and its video spot, and announced the Greek entries in the competition programmes (NATIONAL, NATIONAL STUDENT, INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, INTERNATIONAL STUDENT, ANIMATION, SHORT & GREEN and KIDDO) of the 48th edition of the DISFF, which will take place on September 8-14.

This year, the Drama Film Festival will screen a total of 151 short films across all its competitive sections. Of these, 35 films will compete in the official Greek programme and 24 films in the Greek student programme, most of which will have their world premiere.

A total of 3714 films were submitted from all over the world.

The visual identity of this year’s Drama Film Festival draws its inspiration from geometry. At its centre is an eye – the gaze, literally, as a means of viewing but also metaphorically, as the filter through which we perceive the world and cinema stories. It acts as a call to the spectator, leading them to turn their gaze to cinema, to observe, to feel and to engage. The geometric forms, simple and with bright colours, make up a flexible visual system, which has the ability to rearrange and recompose. The design elements shift and change position. As do films, their heroes and their stories.

This year’s Festival’s visual identity is once again signed by the designer Konstantinos Pavlidis, based in Drama. Our video spot is a Normal Toast production, directed by Angelos Gourzis and with an original music by Grigoris Eleftheriou.

Watch the video spot of the 48th DISFF:

The visual identity:

We remind you that from 2023 onwards, the films that receive the highest awards of the National and International Competition of the Festival every September, will automatically ensure the much coveted “ticket” to participate in the Oscar® procedure. The association with the Academy Awards® has given DISFF the extra stimulus needed to perform its role to the utmost.

*While welcoming the event’s audience, journalists and audiovisual professionals, George Angelopoulos said:

“Changes are often frightening. They keep us alert, vigilant and concerned, but they can also evoke excitement, hope or even impatience. Since its birth, cinema has always had an organic relationship with change. As if the medium itself, based on the alternation of images, were destined to constantly change and evolve.  From black and white to colour, from silent to sound, from movie theatres to mobile phones, films remain a part of our lives, not only in spite of change, but perhaps because of it. Similarly, a film festival must change, be challenged, question and explore ways to evolve and yet always remain relevant. Changing the artistic director marks a new chapter for the festival. Modernising a film festival is a great challenge, just as it is a great challenge to find the way to go one step further, one step up.”

Referring to this year’s 48th edition, George Angelopoulos said that “the Drama Film Festival is changing. But it remains firm at its core: promoting creativity, freedom, pluralism and the passion for short film. A passion that, despite the changes of persons and contexts, has never been erased.

Young filmmakers keep it alive with their talent, their enthusiasm and their thirst for creation.

This year’s event is a product of a collective effort. I’d like to express my sincere thanks to all those who supported, guided, worked and believed. It has been a difficult year, but then again, when isn’t it difficult for Greek cinema? Maybe our efforts will show results quickly, maybe it will take time. One thing is certain; the warmth of the films, the smiles, the emotion, the talks after the screenings will be there to remind us why we love this festival. They say the only thing we know about the future is that it will be different. So, I wish for an always different Drama Film Festival.”

*The Mayor of Drama and President of the Cultural Organization of the Drama Short Film Festival, George Papadopoulos sent his greeting:

“It is with great pleasure and pride that we welcome you to the heart of an institution that for 48 years now has been celebrating the power of short film creativity.

The Drama International Short Film Festival, taking place from 8 to 14 September 2025, is a cultural beacon for our city, Greece and the global film community.

We warmly welcome all the directors, artists and friends of cinema who will join us this year in this great celebration.

We invite you to experience the magic of cinema with us. To be part of this ‘reflection of life.’ To be moved, to think, to be inspired; in Drama, where short film finds its big screen.

And if, according to John Huston, Hollywood has always been a cage that imprisons dreams, we say to all young creators:

Drama is the place that gives you wings, so your dreams can fly away – all around the globe.

We thank the creators and the spectators for being with us.”

*Vasilis Terzopoulos, host of the evening, read the greeting of the Vice President of the Drama Film Festival, Petros Paraskevaidis:

“It is a great pleasure and honour to invite you to the 48th Drama International Short Film Festival. A Festival that, for almost half a century, has been a living laboratory of dreams and storytelling, a gateway to worlds of imagination and reflection.

Cinema, and especially short film, is a condensed narrative of emotions, experiences and dreams. Each creation shown on our screens is a small universe that may evoke strong emotions and engrave indelible moments in the memory of the viewers. We are proud that this year, once again, Drama will be the focus of interest for artists from every corner of the planet, who choose the Festival to promote their work.

With its long history, our Festival has established itself as one of the most important institutions in the field of cinema, both in Greece and internationally.  Its rising path is not a coincidence. It is the result of hard work, dedication, but also of a firm commitment to openness and transparent procedures that characterize every aspect of our operation. We firmly believe that art flourishes in an environment of trust and equal opportunity, and we strive to offer this to all our participants and viewers.

This year, we welcome with great pleasure and anticipation the new Artistic Director of the Festival, Mr. George Angelopoulos, who with his experience and vision will contribute decisively to the further development and evolution of the Festival. Along with him, and with our entire artistic team, we aim to remain a leading destination for emerging filmmakers, offering them an opportunity to present their talent on an international level, as our previous successes with Oscar and EFA nominations have demonstrated after all.

The Drama International Short Film Festival is not just a cultural event. It is a living organism that is constantly evolving, inspiring and creating memories that will accompany the viewers forever.

The curtain of the 48th Drama International Short Film Festival rises on Monday 8 September 2025 in our beloved Drama, and we invite all of you to a unique and unforgettable ‘cinematic journey’.”

THE NEW TEAM OF DISFF PROGRAMMERS:

New and old friends make up the new team of programmers of the Drama Festival:

*Vassilis Terzopoulos, Head Programmer of the International Competition
*Panagiotis Iossifelis, Head Programmer of the National Student Competition

*Kostis Charamountanis, Head Programmer of the International Student Section
*Spyros Siakas, Head Programmer of the International Animation Competition
*Maya Sfakianaki, Head Programmer of the Short & Green International Competition
*Antigoni Papantoni, Head of Short Film Hub
*Varvara Douka, Head of Pitching Lab
and
*George Angelopoulos, Head Programmer of the National Competition and Kiddo

NATIONAL COMPETITION: WHERE THE DRAMA FILM FESTIVAL’S HEART BEATS

George Angelopoulos, referring to this year’s Greek films selected for the National Competition, pointed out the following:

“If the Drama Film Festival had a heart, it would definitely beat from the National Competition. It is the section in which we first met now well-loved Greek creators; the section to which we would look back to get a good insight into what was happening in the country and across the world at the time when a film was made; into what engaged us, what scared us, what intrigued us, or what we were not yet ready to understand.

This year once again documents the marks of the era in which we live. Films offering escapism, journeys of the mind and the imagination, worlds designed differently from our own and unfamiliar characters that give a sense of reality and of the filmmakers’ anxiety to escape from it or to recreate it according to their own rules; a mirror of our society where family and social expectations generate inevitable disappointments.

Children’s characters are flourishing and the children’s film genre, almost non-existent in Greece, makes a dynamic appearance. As diversity has been at the spotlight in previous years, filmmakers are now finding creative ways to reinvent queer themes using supernatural and mythological beings as protagonists.

The filmmakers who consciously set their narrative in contemporary Greece mainly intend to criticize and demonstrate the country’s social ills, such as corruption, intolerance, subservience to capital and the violation of values. Combined with the also popular theme of ‘memory’ and its preservation or reinterpretation, as well as with the mourning motif that recurs from time to time, it gives the impression that the good days are behind us.

And yet, in most cases, the film characters do not choose to give up. Even when everything is against them, they head towards the light, persevere, try and demand. Just like the creators of these films do. Hopefully they will inspire us all to do the same.”

GREEK PARTICIPATIONS IN THE COMPETITION SECTIONS OF THE 48^th DISFF

NATIONAL COMPETITION – 2025 DISFF48

Τhe Circles of Ro, Μyrto Apostolidou
Mermaids, Lida Vartzioti, Dimitris Tsakaleas
3 cm of Complexity, Anna Vasof
100 years ahead, Michael Gigintis
MITCH, Gevi Dimitrakopoulou
Roots, Konstantinos Doxiadis
Noi, Neritan Zinxhiria
Fouetté, Dimitris Zouras
He Who Once Was, Kostis Theodosopoulos
The Outsider, Eftychia Iosifidou
The patient 1789, Eirini Karagkiozidou
Cold?, Andreas Kontopoulos
Magdalena Hausen: Frozen Time, Yannis Karpouzis
Beware of the Southern stars, Christos Karteris
Hopepunk, Vasiliki Lazaridou
Performer, Yannis Beretsos
The wolves return, Stelios Moraitidis
Requiem in Salt, Sylvia Nicolaides, Nicolas Iordanou
A Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Natassa Xydi
PLANETS, Fili Olsefski
The day we became heroes, Selini Papageorgiou
Do what you must, Manos Papadakis
Dust to dust, Dimitris Papathanasis
Pirateland, Stavros Petropoulos
LUDYAS, Akis Polizos
GIVE ME 5 MINUTES, Marthilia Svarna
Carcass, Makis Sebos
ΝΙΚΗ, Savvas Stavrou
Mikro Soma, Jon Simvonis
AVANTAZ, Christos Tatsis
Last Tropics, Thanasis Trouboukis
Places Called Home, Dimitris Tsalapatis
Nothing and everything, Lia Tsalta
Fuit, Alexandros Chantzis
Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis 

31 fiction films and 4 documentaries participate in the National Competition Programme (Τhe Circles of Ro, 3 cm of Complexity, Beware of the Southern stars και Requiem in Salt).

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION -2025 DISFF 48

Noi, Neritan Zinxhiria
Magdalena Hausen: Frozen Time, Yannis Karpouzis
400 Cassettes, Thelyia Petraki
Pirateland, Stavros Petropoulos 

NATIONAL STUDENT COMPETITION  – 2025 DISFF48

The Life Cycle of Cicadas, Ines Perot
Prelude to a Supernova, Christos Artemiou
At the Market, Kostas Fountas Aloupogiannis
Fragments of Life from the Place I Call Home, Andreas Lazidis
Volta, Socrates Mousmoulidis
Sleep, Cos Mandis, Jay McNeil
Cosmic Egg, Nefeli Psykou, Christoforos Alamanis
Leuresthes, Ioanna Roumelioti
Transwalking, Efthymia Kotoula
Venus, Vidi, Vici, Roxani Varela
Or How to Disappear, Giorgos Aggelopoulos
My Father, Christina Sfakianaki
Leaving was what she did best, Vassilis Pantelidis
Metamorfosi, Thanos Karanikas, Dimitra Kosma
Rafaella, Elias Maroutsis
New Mexico, Antonis Goumas
The Drive, Alexandros Triantafyllidis
The Day you Left Spring, Dimitra Papaefthymiou
Lost Gardenias, Galatia Lagoutari
Wild Cherry, Panos Ziogas
My Green Garden, Eleni Tsekeri
The Quiet Weight of Things, Dimitra Petmeza
Only Connect, Betty Kostadinova
emery, marble and vine, Orestis Rouskas

As Panagiotis Iossifelis, screenwriter and professor of screenwriting (School of Film, School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) notes:

“This is the fourth year of the new National Student Programme of the Drama International Short Film Festival. It is still too early to draw conclusions about the new programme. We are obviously still at the beginning. On the other hand, the beginning is our natural state in this programme, our very own nature and position: excitement, mistakes, usually work with zero budgets, the enormous effort (that is totally unpaid), hope and its frustration, giving up and restarting, immaturity and talent, the urge to talk about everything and finally saying half of it or even nothing, the need to confess a short personal story and ending up touching the viewers’ souls at very big festivals around the globe -all of which is, for us, literally and figuratively, in a day’s work.

This year too, we had more applications than the previous year (they reached almost two hundred), film studies curriculum modifications so that the student films would not contradict the festival’s rule of a Greek premiere of the film, subsidies for student short films from funding centres and (in some cases) their schools, regional support for student short films, and the participation of experienced actors and actresses who show faith in the artistic vision of the young filmmakers.”

Twenty-four (24) films were selected this year. “From many different Schools, public and private, undergraduate and postgraduate, Greek and foreign (which, of course, are attended by Greek students). Schools known from previous years but also several new ones. Among them are the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University, the Department of Directing of the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos, the School of Film within the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Postgraduate Studies Programme “Applied-Clinical Sociology and Art” of the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean, the programme Film Studies: Screenplay, Filmmaking, and Research (SKI) of the Hellenic Open University, the Department of Digital Arts and Cinema of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly, the Postgraduate Studies Programme of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean, AKTO, Filmschool. gr, Queen Mary University of London.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT COMPETITION -2025 DISFF 48

The Life Cycle of Cicadas, Ines Perot
Simon at the Nightshop, Thanasis Tsimpinis

ΑΝΙΜΑΤΙΟΝ– 2025 DISFF48

The Synthetic Age, Dimitris Armenakis
Poplars, Alexandros Vounatsos
Holy shit, Taxiarchis Deligiannis, Vassilis Tsiouvaras
13m2, Antonis Dimitropoulos

SHORT AND GREEN– 2025 DISFF48

Don’t try this in the woods,  Emma Doxiadi
Green, Dimitris Iosifidis Hokmetidis

KIDDΟ – 2025 DISFF48

La Première Image, Olia Verriopoulou
Maternelle, Basile Doganis
Fall Christmas, Kostas Bakouris
Giati, Nikos Pavlineris
The Fight, Antony Petrou
Salty, Andreas Raptis
Atlantic, Alexander Stamatiadis
The T3st, Alexandros Tsilifonis

SHORT FILM LAB

The various activities of the Short Film Hub, supported by CREATIVE EUROPE, are spread throughout the festival. Every day there will be one-to-one meetings between directors, screenwriters, producers and industry professionals, as well as open discussions, panels and roundtables.

Last but not least, the well-established international Pitching Lab could not be missing, assembling the top 10 proposals (script drafts) from all over the world.

The Greek projects that were selected to participate are the following:

Windbag (script: Fivos Imellos)
Αs if Ι had you next to me (script: Despina Ladi)
Mom is alive (script: Isavella Aivalioti )
and the Greek co-production (UK/USA/Greece):
EO1 (script:  Ruby Mastrodimos)

TRIBUTE: 30 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION PROGRAMME / SURPRISE SCREENING

This year, the Drama Film Festival marks the 30th anniversary of its internationalization, with a tribute featuring a selection of the films that have won the Grand Prix of the International Competition Programme over the years.

One of the most important milestones in this creative process was the short film “Next Floor” (2008) by the now celebrated French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, director of “Dune” and the new James Bond film, which was presented yesterday on the terrace of the Greek Film Archive in the Lais Open Air Cinema as a surprise screening, and will be also screened as part of the Drama tribute.

In this exemplary short-form piece, during an opulent banquet, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic culinary carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events destabilizes the endless symphony of abundance…

Denis Villeneuve’s film won the Grand Prix for the best short film at DISFF in 2008, proving that every year the Drama Film Festival introduces us to the filmmakers that will engage us in the future.

————

Drama Film Festival would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, the Region of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace, the Municipality of Drama, the Hellenic Parliament, the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (EKOMMED), RAYCAP, PPC (gold sponsor of the Festival), Cyclops, Finos Film, and all the bodies of the film industry (and not only them), of our country, for their support, love and excellent cooperation in the interest of the short film and its creators.

 

The detailed programme of the festival’s parallel programmes will be announced in August.

All the way from Drama to the Oscars

All the way from Drama to the Oscars

We were delighted and honored to see the film “In the Shadow of the Cypress” win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the Αcademy Awards Ceremony! The film had its Greek premiere at the International Short Film Festival of Drama in the #animation program (Head programmer Spiros Siakas) and won the Best Animation film Award. The team of the DISFF congratulates the directors Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani and all the film’s contributors.

In the Shadow of the Cypress / Dar Saaye Sarv Iran
Animation

Directed by: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani | Screenplay: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani | Animation: Azad Maroufi, Hessam Javaheri, Hossein Molayemi, Reyhaneh Sadat Mirhashemi, Sepehr Momeni, Mehdi Torabi | Editing: Hossein Molayemi | Original Music: Afshin Azizi | Sound Design: Hossein Ghoorchian | Production Design: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani | Producers: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani | Production Company: Barfak Animation Studio

A captain suffering from PTSD, lives with his daughter, struggling with a harsh life. He wants to be a caring father… One day, something unexpected happens. It can be either a new trouble or a blessing in disguise.

Shirin Sohani was born in 1986 in Tehran, Iran. She graduated from Tehran University of Art with an MA in Animation Directing. She started her professional career in 2012. She works as concept artist, background artist, scriptwriter, and production manager. In the Shadow of the Cypress is her first professional film. Her graduation animated film, The Fan (2014), won national and international awards.

Hossein Molayemi was born in 1982, in Shiraz, Iran. He graduated from Tehran University of Art with an MA in Animation Directing. He started his professional career in 2004. He works as director, character designer, storyboard artist, animator, and university lecturer. In the Shadow of the Cypress is his second film. His first film, Run Rostam Run (2017), was selected in Annecy, Warsaw and several other Oscar-qualifying film festivals, winning national and international awards