THE award-winning director Giorgos Zois is the candidate who chooses Berlin-Brandenburg media council for this year’s residency fellowship program “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin”, is organized for the third year together with Thessaloniki Film Festival. The program offers film professionals from Greece developing a new project the opportunity to live and work in Berlin for three months.
Giorgos Zois’ short debut “Casus Belli” (2010) premiered at the Venice Film Festival, traveled to more than two hundred film festivals around the world, was awarded the Best Short Film Award by the Greek Film Academy, and won seven awards at International Films. Drama Short Films Festival. Giorgos Zois’s second short film Ending Titles (2012) was screened in Venice and won the European Film Academy Award for Best European Short Film. His debut film, Interruption (2015), also had its world premiere in Venice, to a warm reception from audiences, critics and renowned international directors such as Ruben Estlund and Romain Gavras.
Giorgos Zois’ next two short films, The 8th Continent (2017) and The Third Kind (2018), were screened in special screenings at Venice and Cannes Critics’ Week respectively, completing a long and successful international journey full of accolades and introductions. at the most important film festivals. Giorgos Zois’ second feature Arcadia (2024) premiered in the Berlinale’s Encounters section, and a little later won the Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Festival for his performance by Vangelis Mourikis.
The candidate selected each year for the scholarship program of the residency “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin” has the opportunity to get to know the whole spectrum of German film production, while at the same time getting to know the multidimensional aspects of a city based in Berlin. The heart of European artistic creativity. As part of the program, well-known professionals from the German film industry take on the role of mentors and are ready to share their valuable experiences with the participants and give useful advice. The scholarship provided by Medienboard fully covers accommodation and travel expenses (round-trip airfare) in addition to a monthly stipend of 1,200 euros per participant. The first year of the residency scholarship program “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin” was taken by the director and screenwriter Sonia Lisa Kenderman, and last year the baton was taken by the director Eftimis Kosemund-Sanidis.
the residency scholarship program “Berlin AiR: Berlin-Thessaloniki” organized by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. German-Polish director Eva Vikiel (photo). Wikiel, who has several short films to his credit and made his feature directorial debut with Krzyk: Losing Control (2024), will be in Thessaloniki to conduct research and work on the script for his next project, Another Sea Odyssey. at the same time, he will have the opportunity to participate in the work of the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Festival Bazaar. During the first two years of the program, Moldovan director Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu and Jordanian director Rand Beirut were in Thessaloniki