Asteris Koutoulas
Festival Initiator
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
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
Sandra von Ruffin
Festival Initiator
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
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.
Sofia Stavrianidou
Festival Manager
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
was born in Alexandroupoli, Northern Greece. 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 over 20 years, specialized in Press, Communication, 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 Office Manager at Odeon Film Distribution (one of the biggest distribution companies in Southern Europe ), as a Film Sales and Acquisitions Executive at m-appeal world sales (Berlin) and as publicity Manager at #re publica Convention 2017. She has been responsible for the curation of publicity campaigns, including press conferences, international Press Junkets, premieres and publicity in festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Toronto. She has served as Press Attaché to Jim Giannopoulos, Michael Winterbottom, Rodrigo Garcia, Guillermo Arriaga, Barry Levinson, Alex Proyas, Danis Tanovic, Fatih Akin, Jafar Panahi, Costa-Gavras, a.o. Since May 2019, she is working as hospitality and publicity Manager at Connecting Cottbus – East West co.production Film Market.
Elisa Deftos
General Coordinator & Guest Manager
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
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.
She has been an active Hellas Filmbox team member since day one, working in the field of the festival’s organisation and guest management.
Andreas Malliaris
Sponsors & Finance
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
Born in Athens/ Greece, of German-Greek origin.
Since 2005 – Event Operations Management, Marketing/PR activities, Sponsoring and artistic direction at different festivals: Jazz-Meeting Berlin, Young Generation Jazz, Music ‘n’ Migration – A European Jazz Odyssey. Participation in other Event projects.
Co-organizing a Music Film Festival (www.musik-film-marathon.de)
Till 2005 Marketing, European project management and PR activities at different institutions: Berlin Partner, InfoBox Berlin and IBA Berlin.
Since 1996 Organisation of concerts and CD-productions as member of different band projects.
Currently lecturer at different universities and adult education centres in Berlin teaching: Event Management, Cultural Management, Marketing, Project Management and Public Relations. Membership at Berlin Music Commission.
Yianna Sarri
Head of Programme
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
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.
Dimitris Argyriou
Head of Program New Vision & Short Films
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
graduated from the Audio & Visual Art department of Ionian University and from Universität der Kunste – Berlin (UDK – Berlin).
He participated as director at Berlinale Talents, Sarajevo Talents and Talent Development Campus of Cork Film Festival between other residencies and film programs.
He has directed 9 short films, which have won more than 50 awards and were screened in more than 700 international film festival and exhibitions.
Also has he directed and produced 21 short documentaries for European Television. Furthermore, as an editor, he edited two feature documentaries.
Except for his film work, in 2014 he founded the NewBorn Short Film Agency providing Festival & Distribution Strategy for short and feature films.
He served as Head of New Vision Competition of Hellas FilmBox Berlin for the first two editions and was Festival Director at the third edition, whereas he was head of short film programming in Aegean Film Festival (2016-2019), Programmer in International Short Film Festival in Berlin – Interfilm (2013 – 2016), working in Guest Management Office of
Berlinale-Berlin International Film Festival (2014-2017) and he as a Festival Director of Shortcutz Berlin (2013-2015). Meanwhile, he has served as a Jury Member in various Short Film Festival such as Alpinale ISFF and Landshut ISFF. In 2017 he curated a special program about Greek Films in International Film Festival, Fest: New Directors/New Films in Portugal.
More information at http://dimitrisargyriou.
Klaus Salge
Program New Vision & Short Films
Hellas Filmbox BerlinVita
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).
Katharina Hein
Communication & Press
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
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
Art direction
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
Sofia Athanasaki
Web Catalogue and Translations
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
comes from Athens. She is a BA graduate in Translation (Ionian University, Corfu) and MA graduand student in Conference Interpreting (Aristotle University Thessaloniki). The languages she is working with are Greek, English and German. Today she works as a freelancer translator, subtitler and interpreter. She has cooperated with translation and subtitling companies, Greek and European filmmakers, travel agencies. This is her 3rd year at Hellas Filmbox Berlin.
Vaios Kolofotias
Web Administrator
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
was born in 1988 in Volos, Central Greece.
At the age of 18, he moved to Thessaloniki to start his studies and found his first job in Thessaloniki’s International Film Festival. He fell in love with cinema and started experimenting with performing arts and photography. In 2010, he was a founding member of the Argo Film Festival, a festival trying to promote upcoming cinematographers from Greece. He studied for 2 years in Drama school Averto (Thessaloniki), he took part in several theatre plays and short films while he completed his studies (BSc & MSc) in Computer Science. In 2018, he moved to Berlin and enjoying every bit of it.
Alkistis Kafetzi
Film traffic
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
was born in Athens, Greece. She studied Theatre at the University of Athens and film editing.
Since 2011 she has edited several short films and documentaries and has collaborated with theater directors and visual artists as a video artist for theater productions and video installations. In 2014 she moved to Munich, Germany since this year she lives in Berlin. The past 6 years she is working as a freelancer videographer all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2018 she is a member of the group „Cinephile”, working as a program curator for the Greek Film Week in Munich.
Angela Konti
Head of Side Events
Hellas Filmbox Berlinvita
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 shedesigned 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.