Hellas Filmbox Berlin

Festival Directors

Sandra von Ruffin

Festival Director

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is a half-Greek and half-German Berlin-based actress, born into a Greek artist family and raised on the beautiful countryside in the north of Germany. At the age of 16, Sandra left home to go to school in London. She continued her graduate education in modern history, history of art and cultural sciences at the Humboldt University, Berlin. After graduating Sandra went back to London to fulfill her passion in studying drama. In 2013 she once more returned to Berlin which she continues to call home. Sandra has been acting in several German and Greek-German film productions, such as “Toleranz”, “Berlin”, “The Penal Colony”, “Dance Love Fight Die – With Mikis on the road “. Acting is her main focus, however, Sandra also aims to write her dissertation and currently applies for a phd program.

sandravonruffin.de

Elena Diesbach

Vice Festival Director

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Elena Diesbach stammt aus Giannitsà und studierte Theater-und Filmwissenschaften in Erlangen, später Medienwissenschaften und Romanistik (Französische und Italienische Literaturwissenschaft) in Freiburg. Schon zu Studienzeiten engagiert in akademischer und kommunaler Filmarbeit, rezensiert sie seitdem Filme für ein monatliches Freiburger Stadtmagazin. Nach verschiedenen Tätigkeiten bei Produktions- und Filmlizenzfirmen ist sie seit 2005 in der Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) München tätig, dort seit 2013 für die internationalen Austauschprojekte der Produktionsabteilung (mit USA, Frankreich, Kanada, Österreich, Südtirol und der Schweiz). Von 2005-2009 war sie im Vorstand der “Griechischen Filmwoche München e.V.”. Seit 2005 ist Elena Diesbach Prüferin der FSK, und seit 2011 ist sie freie Mitarbeiterin für das Filmfest München und das Filmschoolfest, sowie zuletzt auch Moderatorin bei den „Internationalen Hofer Filmtagen“.

Michalis Argyrou

Associated Festival Director Greece

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Michalis Argyrou is the founder of Sambo Events and Create New Ideas Architects. He is an artist, creative director and designer. He studied at Athens School of Fine Arts in Athens. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and has curated and organized numerous performances and cultural events. In 2009 he created the Center for Art and Culture Beton7 and in 2011 beton7artradio.

Holger Ehlers

Association board president of the german-greek Culture Association

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Creative Director APASSIONATA

Holger Ehlers started his professional career in 1983 when he followed his passion for art and decided to study opera singing at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg.

Nowadays Holger Ehlers can look back on around a quarter of a century of work in international opera, musicals and theatre – from Hamburg and Berlin to Moscow and Shanghai. Among other productions, he has featured in the “The Magic Flute”, “The Barber of Seville”, “The Marksman” and “Evita”. He has already received numerous awards for his performances on stage.

Since APASSIONATA was founded in 2001, Holger Ehlers has played a huge role in the fantastic success of the family show. He has produced the show‘s music from day one, which still enchants audiences across Europe and has clocked 14 gold and platinum disks from the German Phono Association (Deutscher Phonoverband). He has also received other top awards from the record company Edel Records and the company PRG (2010: “Best German show”).

He also became involved in the conception of the family entertainment show at an early stage and in doing so laid the foundations for his current role: He has been responsible for the overall artistic coordination since his appointment as Creative Director in 2006.

What he says about his own work: “APASSIONATA offers me new challenges every year – presenting the beauty of the horses in a unique way and capturing the imagination of audiences with moments they have never seen, heard or felt before.”

Festival Organisation

Elisa Deftos

Festival Organisation

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was born in Athens into a german-greek family. She grew up in Greece and graduated from the German School of Athens in 2003. She then went to Berlin to study Social and Economic Communications at the Unversity of Arts and received her diploma as a Communication Manager in 2008.

Whilst studying and after her graduation Elisa gained working experience as an assistent next to film directors and producers on film and tv sets and production companies in Berlin and Athens.

Since 2013 Elisa works as a Project Manager for the german advertising agency peppermint werbung berlin GmbH.

Giannina Erfany-Far

Promotion & Road Show Coordination Festival PR

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is a half Greek half German actress based in Berlin. She was born in Frankfurt and raised in Athens. After her graduation in 2012 from the well-known drama school Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich, she continued her studies at New York Film Academy in New York City. Besides her passion for acting her interest in the production side of film increased and so she started working in the biggest extra agency in Bavaria. Since 2014 she is studying film science and communication studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin. At the Berlinale festival in 2015 she worked in the press office. The following summer, she was hired as a consultant by Campo Bahia film in Brazil to attend the Film Festival and the Youth Academy as a PR and event consultant. Giannina is still working as an actress, but is also intensively involved in the production side of film festivals.

Dimitris Karras

Technical Director

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Born to greek „Gastarbeiter“ in Germany in 1971 in Western Germany he lived both in Germany and Greece. After graduating he moved to Cologne to study political sciences and history. By that time he started working at the German TV Broadcast Company WDR. Working at VIVA Music TV as a production manager gave direction to move to Berlin in 2000. In Berlin he started at DoRo Music Videos and Commercials to produce +150 Music Videos.

The next steps were Markenfilm Berlin and United Visions. The finishing step for high class commercials and corporate films for „all screens“ he earned as an international executive producer at Chimney Berlin.

Berlin based Greek producer and consultant for advertising, corporate and music videos.

Program-Team:

Team: Competition New Greek Cinema

Ioanna Kriona

Director of Programming

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was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1990. In 2012 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Freie Universität in Berlin, where she studied History of Arts and Film Studies. During her studies, she worked for several film institutions, like the 50. International Film Festival of Thessaloniki, the 11. International Documentary Film Festival of Thessaloniki and the Film Museum of Thessaloniki. Since 2010, she works as a filmmaker within the framework of cultural initiatives and associations, such as the Greek Community Centre in Berlin. 2014 she is elected to the board of the Greek Community of Berlin, since February 2015 also a vice-president. In 2014 she completed “Postheimat”, the first own film project she has worked on as a writer, director and producer. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Film Studies in Berlin.

Danis Karaisaridis

Vice Director of Programming

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studied film in Thessaloniki (screenplay, direction, camera, editing). He has made twelve short films so far. His film ” X ” won the “KAWASAKI Digital Short Film ” award in Tokyo in 2004. Dream and subconscious are his favorite film subjects. He currently lives in Berlin.

Yianna Sarri

Director of Programming Documentary

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In 2000 Yianna Sarri graduated with a BA and MA in Communication Studies and Film Studies from Coventry University and City University in the UK. From 2000 she is based in Athens and worked for KINO SA. In 2002 she started working at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival as a programmer. The last 5 years she is Head of the Market for both festivals and recently has been appointed as consultant for innovative programs & new technologies.

Constantinos Giannacacos

Senior Programmer Germany

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was born in 1956 in Trikala, Greece. He is the director of the centre of migration in Munich, also known as the Greek House. At the age of 18 he moved to Nuremberg, later to Munich where he studied communication studies and modern German literature.

Gianacacos was the initiator and director of the Greek film festival in Munich called „Griechische Filmwoche“ which now occurs in its 29th year. He has been politically very active since being at university. He was a member of the board of the Greek Student Society. the Greek Community Munich, at the PoLo Art Club, at the Greek Writers Community, the Foreign Advisory Council Munich and between 2010 and 2014 a member of Munich´s city council. Additionally he functioned as a board member for the official Munich film association, he was the co-founder of the Greek-Bavarian Day of Culture and spokesman for the initiative Greek-Turkish Friendship named „Dialog“. He is married to the graphic designer Monika Aderbauer and has two children.

Adam Adamopoulos

Senior Programmer Greece

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Adam Adamopoulos, (Ph.D.)², is a Assoc. Professor of Medical Physics at the Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Hellas. He was born in Patras, Hellas and studied Physics at the University of Crete, at Heraklion, and European Cultural Studies at the Hellenic Open University. He carried out a Ph.D. dissertation in Medical Physics on neural network models of epilepsy at the Department of Medicine of the Democritus University of Thrace and a second Ph.D. dissertation in Computational Intelligence and Artificial Life, at the Department of Computer Enginnering and Informatics of the University of Patras, Hellas. His work is mainly focused on Medical Physics, medical applications of Biomagnetism, Computational Medicine and Computational Intelligence. He has attended seminars, conferences and festivals on arts, cinema and philosophy and writes articles about films and books.

Team: Competition “New Vision”

Dimitris Argyriou

Director of Programming "New Vision"

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Dimitris Argyriou graduated with Master of Arts from Dept. of Audio & Visual Arts at Ionian University in Greece and he studied with Erasmus scholarship at Universität der Künste Berlin (UDK-Berlin) in Germany. He has written, directed and produced 7 short films, which have awarded & nominated in more than 250 international film festivals & events. He has won 20 awards for his films. As Editor, he has edit 1 feature length documentary and more than 250 short films, music videos, commercials and TV programs. Ηe is working as director and editor in Berlin, he is the founder of the NEW BORN Short Film Agency and since 2014, he is member of the pre-selecting team of International Short Film Festival in Berlin- Interfilm and since 2016, Head of Short Film Programming in International Film Festival of Patmos.

http://dimitrisargyriou.com/

Klaus Salge

Programmer "New Vision"

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is a Berlin-based german Film – director, – author and – producer.

Born in 1941, he began his career making documentaries in 1972 after finishing his studies in sociology and social-psychology. From the beginning, his films focused on cultural and social issues. Among his numerous films are:

Mikis Theodorakis – The time is against tanks and for music (1974, with D. Schubert, the first concert of Theodorakis after the dictature in Greece in Karaiskaki – Stadium, Piraeus); The brief life of Chris Gueffroy (2011); Mikis Theodorakis.Composer (2010, with Asteris Kutulas ); A blonde Province (with Jacek Kubiak / Best German/Polish TV-Film Award, 2010); Yellow Cake (2003-2007, Dir. J. Tschirner, Co-Producer); The days between (Fiction / Dir.: Maria Speth / Producer, Tiger Award, Rotterdam, 2001); Mikis Theodorakis – Sun & Time (1999, with A. Kutulas).

www.novemberfilm.de

Team: Retrospective

Ina Kutulas

Programmer Retrospective

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is one of the initiators of HELLAS FILMBOX BERLIN.

She was born in Magdeburg (Germany) in 1965. During her lengthy stays in Greece (1992-1996 and 2005-2006) she developed from a poet to composing prose. So far two of her books (the poem edition “Herbstzeitlose” and the novel “Maybe Athens – Berlin Maybe”) were published as well as a variety of adaptions of Greek poetry in German magazines and books (for example Elytis, Engonopoulos, J. Khaleed, Karatzas, Karyotakis, Cavafy, Neophytou, Polydouri, Ritsos, Seferis, Theodorakis). Currently Ina Kutulas focuses on the writing of essayistic texts.

She worked together with Asteris Kutulas and Klaus Salge on the film projects “Sun and Time” (1999) and “Mikis Theodorakis. Composer” (2011) and on making the book “Mikis Theodorakis – A life in pictures” (2010). Ina and Asteris Kutulas were the editors of Wallstein’s journal for literature and arts “die horen” number 249 which was dedicated to Greek literature and was published in 2013.

Ina is co-author of the feature movies “Recycling Medea” (2014) and “Dance Fight Love Die” (2015). She currently lives in Berlin as a freelancing author and publicist.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Kutulas

http://ina-kutulas.de

Rafika Chawishe

Programmer Retrospective

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is an English actress and director. Her mother is Greek and her Father is English. She grew up in both England and Greece. She started performing in a very young age,in many highly regarded productions, portraying leading parts from the classical repertory. Chawishe was soon noticed by the critics for her talent, especially after playing Medea in the J. Gielgud Theatre (RADA) and the Abbey Festival. Rafika Chawishe made her professional debut in 2006 with the National Theatre of Greece at the theatre of Epidavre, playing Cassandra (graduating performance) in The Trojan Women. Over the following few years she played several of William Shakespeare’s plays in such roles as Immogen in Cymbeline, Juliet in Romeo and Portia in the Merchant of Venice. She collaborated with Bruce Myers twice. The first time they worked together on an adaptation titled, Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare. They tried to stage this adaptation in Greece however they never managed to do that.

The second time they worked together was in the play “The Maids” staged at the National Theatre in 2015. Rafika Chawishe has also staged her own productions in London. She staged three different versions of Medea. In 2007 directed and acted in a short film that was screened in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 she directed another short film that participated in the International Film Festival of Seoul and in the Palm Springs Festival. In 2009 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association invited her to make her debut appearance in Golden Globe Awards as a newcomer.

She is exceedingly well-schooled in her profession with training from some of the most important and distinguished drama institutes in the world, including: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(Bronze, Silver, Gold Certificate in Acting Shakespeare), the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Greece, and a second Bachelor Degree in classics and linguistics from the National University, School of Philosophy.

Nefeli Myrodia

Programmer Retrospective

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Nefeli Myrodia was born in Athens in 1987. She studied International and European Economics and continued with Master’s degrees in International Political Economy and in Digital Arts. Since 2012 she has worked in the theatre as an assistant director and dramaturge and as cultural manager in various art projects.

In 2015 she was the project manager in Athens of Sound Development City and since October 2015 she is working in the production team of the Athens Biennale. She is the producer in Greece of the festival Culturescapes 2017. She was the International Relations coordinator of the artistic programme for Kalamata:21 ECoC Candidacy Office. She has directed three short-films and has participated in the creation of artistic workshops for minorities and vulnerable teams. She is a Humanity in Action 2015 Senior Fellow (Berlin).

Asteris Kutulas

Programmer Retrospective

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is a Berlin-based Greek-German event and music producer, publicist, filmmaker and author. Born to Greek political immigrants in Romania in 1960, Asteris Kutulas and his family moved to East Germany in 1968. He graduated from Dresden’s Kreuzschule and went on to study German philology and history of philosophy at Leipzig University. Since 1981, he has translated numerous works of notable Greek authors into German. Asteris Kutulas has been working as a producer in the events industry since 1979. Since 1980, he has been working with Mikis Theodorakis all over the world. Asteris was partner of Gert Hof and has been the producer of all his mega events between 1999 and 2010. Between 2010 and 2014 he was the executive producer and dramaturg of Europe’s biggest family entertainment show “Apassionata”. Asteris Kutulas was involved on behalf of German film production companies and TV channels in several documentaries and music films mostly on contemporary Greek culture and history. Furthermore, Kutulas served as author and director of several film productions as well as dramatic advisor of theatre and opera productions.

Homepage: www.asteris-kutulas.de

Press & PR

Sofia Stavrianidou

Press Office Management & Greek Press (Germany)

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She was born in Alexandroupoli, Northern Greece. She finished her Abitur at the Greek High School in Nuremberg, Bavaria. She studied Classics, at the National Kapodistrian Universiity in Athens and took classes of Film and Communication in Athens and Cologne. She’s been a Film Professional for more than 15 years, specialised in Press, Publicity and Media. Among others, she has worked for several years as a Press Officer and later as Communications Manager at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece), as Press and Publicity Manager at the Panorama of European Cinema, as a Press Office Manager at Odeon Film Distribution (the biggest distribution company in the Balkans, Greece), as well as a Film Sales and Acquisitions Executive at m-appeal world sales (Berlin). Since 2012 she is based in Berlin, working as a freelancer film executive and coordinator.

Katharina Hein

Head of Public Relations (Germany)

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was born on 24th of February 1983 in Hamburg. She went to primary and secondary school there and finished her Abitur (German school-leaving ‪certificate) in 2003. She completed her undergraduate studies in linguistics, european ethnology and german literature studies at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and then chose to go to Berlin to finish her degree in cultural sciences. Her main focus has always been on film studies and she very early began to work in the sector of public relations. Over three years she was working as a freelancer for many pr agency´s and on different projects, for example being responsible for the editorial side of the Messe Berlin, Berlin´s biggest trade fair.

She has settled down in Berlin now and has been working for the “Erfinderhaus” (erfinderhaus.de) for the past 3 years, responsible for the internal and external communications until in November 2014 her daughter Ella Joone was born. Right now she is still in parential leave.

peppermint werbung berlin GmbH

Artwork

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Advertising agency founded in 1992 and located in Prenzlauer Berg Berlin. Team structure: 6 full-time employees and 8 freelancers/specialists.

www.peppermint.de

Achilleas Gatsopoulos

Artwork

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Coming from a traditional Fine Arts background in Greece, Achilleas studied Post Production and Film Design in the UK, receiving distinction in both degrees. He has worked in the Art Department of major films such as “Harry Potter”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “The Fifth Estate” and “Two Faces of January” as well as numerous BBC and ITV TV productions. Achilleas has also provided set and motion design on various events for big clients ranging from Mercedes Benz, HUGO BOSS, Jimmy Choo, O2, Samsung, Selfridges and Vodafone to Stolichnaya, Jameson, Absolut Vodka and more. Finally, he has also directed numerous music videos and created video content for various music artists ( e.g. Pet Shop Boys, James Blunt, FAUN, Erick Morillo, SKIN(Skunk Anansie) etc). He lives and works in Berlin since 2009.

www.hypnagogia.com

Galya Hristova

Web Administrator

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Galya Hristova is a bulgarian living in Berlin since 2001. She has obtained her Master’s Degree in Communication in Social and Economic Contests at the Berlin University of Arts.

She has gained experience in PR and Social Media Management in different enterprises. Not long ago she has created her own personal blog and writes passionately about self motivation and healthy lifestyle.

www.leanmonkey.de

Side Events

Argyro Antoniadi

Head of Side Events (Music)

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Born in 1974 and raised in Athens. Argyro has studied French Language and Literature in the Kapodestrian University of Athens. During her studies she has attended cinematography, photography and theater seminars. In 1996, a scholarship initiates her her ongoing connection with Spain. She has worked as a journalist in Athens for five years (up until 2003) and then decided to return to Madrid in order to pursue her graduate studies (Masters degree) in Cultural Management. While in Spain, she has contributed to several cultural events, such as the ARCO Modern Art Exhibition and the PhotoEspaña Photography Festival.

She lives and works in Berlin since 2004. This is where she gave birth to her daughter in 2005 and, 16 months later, to her son.

Argyro has collaborated with various organizations and magazines, including the Cultural department of the Cervantes Institute in Berlin and Highlights magazine.

She is the founder of Mixing Roots Productions, a company which focuses on the organization of concerts and cultural events both in Berlin and other european towns.

http://mixingroots.net/

Angela Konti

Head of Side Events (Art)

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Angela Konti was born 1979 in Athens where she started studying

interior architechture. In 2002 she came to Berlin after receiving an

Erasmus scholarship and in 2007 she acquired her Diploma in Stage

Design from the Universität der Künste Berlin. She has since worked

as a freelance stage and costume designer. Among other she

designed the play “The Sheperdess’ Lover” (2007, A.Azas) for the

Athens & Epidauros Theater Festival and the play “Sabine X” (2009,

A.Azas), in the National Theater of Greece in Athens. She was the

production designer in the film “Neuneinhalbs Abschied” (Berlin,

2010, H. Dyrschka), which received numerous awards including the

2011 Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Short Film Price in Wiesbaden, and in the film “Musikhof”

(Berlin, 2010, Th.Kiaos), which was nominated for the Best Short Film 2012 by the

Hellenic Film Academy. In 2013, she designed stage and costumes of the play

“Telemachos, should I stay or should I go” (A. Azas, P. Tsinikoris) in Ballhaus

Naunynstrasse in Berlin. She lives with her family in Berlin.

Julia Jendroßek

Junior Head of Side Events

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Julia Jendroßek was born 1992 in Berlin where she still lives and works. Already in Kindergarten she discovered her passion for drama, performing in a couple of plays. At Highschool she was co-founder of a performing group under the direction of actor and director Max Hegewald. Together they wrote and performed many plays and films. After her leaving certification Julia took part in a voluntary service at the Deutsches Theater Berlin which lead to a triennial job as director assistant at theaters such as Deutsches Theater Berlin, Grips Theater and Schauspiel Hannover. Over this period Julia never lost her passion for drama and therefor resumed her acting career in 2013 by performing as main actress in the awarded motion picture „Schönefeld Boulevard“. By now she could establish herself as talented young actress in Germany and performed in many productions (f.e. Club der roten Bänder, Heute ist nicht alle Tage, Nacht der Angst).

Its her concern to combine performing both before and behind the camera and therefor joined the team of HELLAS FILMBOX in 2016.

Rafika Chawishe

Side Events (Theatre)

CV

is an English actress and director. Her mother is Greek and her Father is English. She grew up in both England and Greece. She started performing in a very young age,in many highly regarded productions, portraying leading parts from the classical repertory. Chawishe was soon noticed by the critics for her talent, especially after playing Medea in the J. Gielgud Theatre (RADA) and the Abbey Festival. Rafika Chawishe made her professional debut in 2006 with the National Theatre of Greece at the theatre of Epidavre, playing Cassandra (graduating performance) in The Trojan Women. Over the following few years she played several of William Shakespeare’s plays in such roles as Immogen in Cymbeline, Juliet in Romeo and Portia in the Merchant of Venice. She collaborated with Bruce Myers twice. The first time they worked together on an adaptation titled, Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare. They tried to stage this adaptation in Greece however they never managed to do that.

The second time they worked together was in the play “The Maids” staged at the National Theatre in 2015. Rafika Chawishe has also staged her own productions in London. She staged three different versions of Medea. In 2007 directed and acted in a short film that was screened in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 she directed another short film that participated in the International Film Festival of Seoul and in the Palm Springs Festival. In 2009 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association invited her to make her debut appearance in Golden Globe Awards as a newcomer.

She is exceedingly well-schooled in her profession with training from some of the most important and distinguished drama institutes in the world, including: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(Bronze, Silver, Gold Certificate in Acting Shakespeare), the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Greece, and a second Bachelor Degree in classics and linguistics from the National University, School of Philosophy.

Nefeli Myrodia

Side Events (Theatre)

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Nefeli Myrodia was born in Athens in 1987. She studied International and European Economics and continued with Master’s degrees in International Political Economy and in Digital Arts. Since 2012 she has worked in the theatre as an assistant director and dramaturge and as cultural manager in various art projects.

In 2015 she was the project manager in Athens of Sound Development City and since October 2015 she is working in the production team of the Athens Biennale. She is the producer in Greece of the festival Culturescapes 2017. She was the International Relations coordinator of the artistic programme for Kalamata:21 ECoC Candidacy Office. She has directed three short-films and has participated in the creation of artistic workshops for minorities and vulnerable teams. She is a Humanity in Action 2015 Senior Fellow (Berlin).

Guest Management