The International Competition Programs have been announced

The International Competition Programs have been announced

The International Competition Programs have been announced

VASSILIS KEKATOS PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY COMMITTEE

The Festival of Drama artistic director Yannis Sakaridis, and the President Yorgos Demertzis, are happy to announce the films participating at the International Competition Program, the International Students Program, and the International Animation Program of the 45th edition of the Festival of Drama, taking place between 5-11 September 2022.

President of this year’s International Competition Jury Committee will be the multi-awarded Vassilis Kekatos, the first Greek director to win the Golden Phoenix for short films in the 72nd Cannes Festival, with his fourth short film The distance between us and the sky.

This year’s International Competition program involves 15 films from all over the world (from India to China, and from France to Argentina). Among these films there are 3 Greek films participating: “Memoir of a Veering Storm” by Sophia Gerovassili, “On Xerxes’ Throne” by Evi Kalogiropoulou, and “Under the Lake” by Thanassis Troumboukis.

In the International Students Program the selection involves 14 films, with the participation of two Greek female directors:  Ariadni-Angeliki Thiphronitou-Litou with “Love you more than peanut butter” and Semeli Saphou with “All that Remains”.

The International Animation Program involves 20 films – with the participation of 3 Greek films: “The incredible Mrs. Lien Mourlen” by Eleni Ksoupa, “In between” by Effie Pappa, and “A night at the cemetery” by Stelios Polychronakis.

THE JURY COMMITTEES

The International Competition Jury Committee:

Vassilis Kekatos (President), Film Director.
Basim Magdy, Experimental Artist – Filmmaker.
Claire Diao, Film Distributor – Critic.

The International Students Jury Committee:

Argiris Papadimitropoulos (President), Film Director.
Themis Bazaka, Actress.
Lena Divani, Writer.

The International Animation Jury Committee:

Sperer Sebastien, Member of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Maria Anestopoulou, Head Programmer of the Platforma Video and the Animasyros Festival.
Panayiotis Kyriakoulakos, Assistant Professor in Computer Animation (University of the Aegean) and audiovisual and interactive projects producer.

IΝTERNATIONAL COMPETITION  PARTICIPANTS – 2022 DISFF45

  1. “Techno, Mama”, Saulius Baradinskas (Lithuania)
  2. “Foster”, Jordi Wijnalda (Netherlands)
  3. “August 13th, Ventsislav Lyubenov Sariev (Bulgaria)
  4. “Memoir of a Veering Storm”, Sophia Gerovassili (Greece)
  5. “Bon Voyage”, Jiawen Li (China)
  6. “The Salamander Child”, Théo Degen (Belgium)
  7. “Threatened Love”, Héctor Herce (Spain)
  8. “On Xerxes’ Throne”, Evi Kalogiropoulou (Greece)
  9. “The Calf”, Mostafa Vaziri (Iran)
  10. “Terra Incognita”, Adrian Dexter – Pernille Kjær (France)
  11. “Under the Lake”, Thanassis Troumboukis (Greece)
  12. “The Saboteur”, Anssi Kasitonni (Finland)
  13. “Cherries”, Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania)
  14. “Plurabelle”, Sacha Amaral (Argentina)
  15. “Murmurs of the Jungle”, Sohil Vaidya (India)

OUT OF COMPETITION:

“Air Hostess-737”, Thanassis Neophotistos (Greece)

As Yorgos Zois, head programmer of the International Competition, noted: “This year’s selection of films involves unique narrations on youth and dead-ends that young people have to face, while desperately seek for outlet reaching the skies. Realistic and metaphysical stories that keep the perfect balance, just like walking on tightrope, that sometimes dare to fearlessly play with the cinema’s own form”.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS PARTICIPANTS  – 2022 DISFF45

  1. “On the Εdge”, Matteo Sanders (Austria)
  2. “Before Pandemic and War, There Were Βed Βugs and Love!”, Nuruzzaman Khan (India, Czech Republic)
  3. “Matapacos”, Karla Riebartsch -Lion Durst (Germany)
  4. “All that Remains”, Semeli Saphou (Greece)
  5. “I Should Feed my Cat”, Abram Cedra (Belgium)
  6. “An Extra Day in Prague”, Jacob Ramsay (Czech Republic)
  7. “Darker”, Frank Van Den Bogaart (Belgium)
  8. “The Dependent Variables”, Lorenzo Tardella  (Italy)
  9. “Laika & Nemo”, Jan Gadermann – Sebastian Gadow (Germany)
  10. “Lonely Fans”, David Oesch (Switzerland)
  11. “Corrupted”, Juan Cifuentes Mera (Chile)
  12. “Any Place”, Minerva Rivera Bolaños (Mexico)
  13. “Love you More than Peanut Butter”, Ariadni-Angeliki Thiphronitou-Litou (Greece)
  14. “After a Room”, Naomi Pacifique (Netherlands)

According to Thanassis Neophotistos, Head of the International Students Program: “In this year’s edition we’re going to watch films about the much-debated diversity, the human sexuality manifested in all sorts of ways, the most pressing political issues, the challenging human relations. In all those films, their themes are treated in an authentic, modern and bold in terms of artistic expression. We met new filmmakers, truly notable representatives of their era and their generation, which I really hope that they will keep telling their stories in cinema showing the same sensitivity and interest. All of the above are happening under the umbrella of the Festival’s new initiative: the Students Campus, with the aspiration to turn the city of Drama into a meeting point involving a cultural and ideas exchange of among the new filmmakers!”

INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION PARTICIPANTS – 2022 DISFF45

  1. “Spirit of the forest”, Nandini Rao -Nipura Rao -Kalp Sanghvi (India)
  2. “Brother nature”, Sophie Bird (United Kingdom)
  3. “Hi! How are you?”, Gaia Grandin-Mendzylewski (France)
  4. “Idodo”, Ursula Ulmi (Switzerland)
  5. “Farm well”, Pepijn Robben-Lucas De Man (Netherlands)
  6. “Mouse house”, Timor Leder (Slovenia)
  7. “The perfect fit”, Meinardas Valkevicius (Lithuania)
  8. “Autosaurus rex”, Marcel Barelli (Switzerland)
  9. “Gut feelings”, Vanesa S. Valliere – John Gregorio (USA)
  10. “Miriam”, Radu Nicolae (Romania)
  11. “The incredible Mrs. Lien Mourlen”, Eleni Ksoupa (Greece)
  12. “Meal on the plate”, Chenglin Xie (USA)
  13. “Hysteresis”, Robert Seidel (Germany)
  14. “Little smasher”, Gilles Cuvelier (France)
  15. “Bardo”, Aisling Conroy (Irland)
  16. “In between”, Effie Pappa (Greece)
  17. “The garbage man”, Laura Goncales (Portugal)
  18. “The pink jacket”, Monika Santos (Portugal)
  19. “My father’s damn camera!”, Milos Tomic (Slovenia)
  20. “A night at the cemetery”, Stelios Polychronakis (Greece)

As the Head Programmer Spiros Siakas notes “for the selection of the films we took into consideration, on one hand, the pluralism and the diversity of the creative techniques, and, on the other hand, the uniqueness of approaching and highlighting emotions and everyday situations under different, and often, unexpected perspectives. Within this context, the program involves films with two-dimensional and three-dimensional, stop motion and computer animation techniques on topics about the human relations and other important global issues, thus emerging diverse and complex emotions. Our main goal is to make the Drama city audience being actively involved in watching the animation films, entering into this universe of stories, and therefore deeply understanding this form of art”.


Drama Festival collaborates with ΕΚΟΜΕ (National Centre of Audiovisual Media & Communication), ΕRT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation), ΕΚΚ (Greek Film Center), Onassis Stegi, Cyclops, RAYCAP, Finos Film, COSMOTE TV and many other bodies, “under the undivided support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Administrative Region, the Greek Parliament, the Municipality of Drama, and, of course the ongoing collaboration with the Greek cinema community”.