Dimitris Athanitis
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Dimitris Athanitis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Athens, Greece |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, Writer, Producer, Architect |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Notable work | "Goodbye Berlin", "No Sympathy for the Devil", "Invisible", "Labyrinth", "Medea" (2020) |
| Awards | Special Jury Prize, Thessaloniki International Film Festival (1994) |
Dimitris Athanitis is a Greek film director, member of the European Film Academy, founding member and first Secretary of the Hellenic Film Academy.[1][2]
Biography
[edit]He was born in Athens, and studied cinema and architecture. His first film, Goodbye Berlin (1994), won the Special Jury Prize at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for “renewing Greek cinema”, received a critics’ mention from PEKK, and a Quality Distinction from the Ministry of Culture.[3]
His second film, No Sympathy for the Devil (1997), represented Greece at the International Section of the Thessaloniki Festival and won the Acting Award for Lena Kitsopoulou, along with another Quality Distinction. In 1995, he directed the television film Talk to Me About Love for ERT, and in 1999, released A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a modern adaptation of the play, included in Mark Burnette’s book Shakespeare and World Cinema (Oxford University Press). The film won Best Greek Film at the 2nd Panorama of Independent Creators.[4]
2000 +1 Shots (2001) is a fresco of the city and the planet at the turn of the millennium, blending fiction and documentary, and gained international recognition with reviews in Variety, Senses of Cinema, Age, and Sequences. Bill Mousoulis named it among the top 10 world films of 2001 in Senses of Cinema. The City of Wonders (2005) is the only fiction film worldwide shot live during the Olympic Games (2004 Summer Olympics), filmed in Athens with a large multinational cast.
Three Days of Happiness (2012) won four international awards and was screened at over 30 festivals, receiving acclaim. It was included by the Thessaloniki Festival in its list of 100 most important films in Greek cinema history. His latest film Invisible (2016) won the Grand Prize at Figueira da Foz and 15 more international awards, screening at over 40 festivals and running 17 weeks in Athens cinemas.[5]
His installation Hidden City/Athens Underground (2011), reconstructing the city’s image through 6+1 films, has been shown in multiple art venues in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Mytilene. It was the only Greek work mentioned in the global visual arts review in Cultura Universale, February 2012.[citation needed]
His first book, Secret Encounters, was published in September 2017 and presented at the Zappeion Book Festival, Thessaloniki, Drama Festival, and 20 other cities.[6] The final cut of No Sympathy for the Devil premiered at the 30th Panorama of European Cinema in October 2017. In April 2018, he was on the jury of the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran.
In May 2019, he announced his upcoming film Medea (2020), based on Euripides’ tragedy, while his documentary Labyrinth (2019), on Athens' underground passages, premiered in London and won Second Prize at the London Greek Film Festival.
He is also the writer and producer of his films and has collaborated with many prominent Greek actors. As an actor, he appeared in films such as Radio Moscow, Strangers in a Strange Land, Vengos: A Man for All Seasons, Goodbye Berlin, Talk to Me About Love, and others.[7]
He has also made three short films: Philosophy (1993), which predicted the Greek debt crisis, winning the Fantasy Award at the Drama Festival; Mr. X (1994), about an employee who lives in his suitcase; and Madonna Calls Fassbinder (2008), as the title suggests.
As an architect, he won three prizes in architectural competitions (1985–1991) and served as a judge for the competition to design the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 2018, combining his roles as director and architect, he spoke at the 1st Architecture and Design Festival in Athens, at the Benaki Museum, about American architect Frank Gehry.[8]
Awards and distinctions
[edit]In 1994, at the 1994 Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Athanitis received a special mention for directing the film Goodbye Berlin.[9]
Filmography
[edit]| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Philosophy | Short film |
| 1994 | Mr. X | |
| Goodbye Berlin | ||
| 1996 | Talk to Me About Love | Television film |
| 1997 | No Sympathy for the Devil | |
| 1999 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | |
| 2000 | 2000+1 Shots | |
| 2005 | The City of Wonders | |
| 2008 | Madonna Calls Fassbinder | Short film |
| 2011 | Hidden City | Short film, installation |
| 2012 | Three Days of Happiness | |
| 2016 | Invisible | |
| 2019 | Labyrinth | |
| 2022 | Medea | |
| 2023 | The Adventure of the Gaze |
References
[edit]- ^ "Hellenic Film Academy". hellenicfilmacademy.gr. Archived from the original on 2019-10-31. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
- ^ "European Film Academy: Members". www.europeanfilmacademy.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
- ^ "Cinephilia.Gr - Dimitris Athanitis: A peculiar, different and demanding cinema". www.cinephilia.gr. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
- ^ "SHAKESPEARE AND CINEMA, M. Burnette". Dimitris Athanitis. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
- ^ "Popaganda at Thessaloniki: Dimitris Athanitis talks about Invisible". popaganda.gr. Retrieved 2019-09-09.[dead link]
- ^ ""Secret Encounters" - A book by Dimitris Athanitis". Fermouart. 2017-09-02. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
- ^ "Labyrinth, Premiere and Award in London". Dimitris Athanitis. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
- ^ "Dimitris Athanitis". ADFF: Athens. Retrieved 2019-08-19.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Koliodimos, Dimitris (2001). Lexicon of Greek Films. Genous Editions. p. 598. ISBN 978-960-8460-41-6.