Multi-awarded film director Yorgos Zois is the candidate selected by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for this year’s residency program “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin”, hosted for the third consecutive year in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Film Festival. The program offers the opportunity to film industry professionals from Greece who have a new project under way to reside and work in Berlin for a three-month period.
The short film debut by Yorgos Zois titled Casus Belli (2010) premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, went on to travel in more than 200 film festivals on a worldwide scale, was bestowed with the Best Short Film by the Hellenic Film Academy and snatched seven awards at the Drama International Short Film Festival. His sophomore short film, Out of Frame (2012), was screened in Venice and won the European Film Academy award for Best European Short Film. His full-length debut titled Interruption (2015) celebrated its world premiere in Venice as well, receiving a warm welcome by the audience, critics, as well as acclaimed filmmakers on the international scene, such as Ruben Östlund and Romain Gavras.
The two short films that came up next, 8th Continent (2017) and Third Kind (2018), made their premiere as a special screening in Venice and competing at the International Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival respectively, before embarking on a long and successful international journey, featuring a series of distinctions and taking part in the most prestigious film festivals around the globe. His sophomore full-length film titled Arcadia (2024) premiered at the Encounters section of the Berlinale, while Vangelis Mourikis won the Golden Firebird Award for Best Actor at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The selected candidate of the residency program “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin” is given the chance to get acquainted with the full spectrum of the German film industry production and gain a first-hand insight into the multifaceted aspects of a city at the core of the European art scene. Within the context of the programme, distinguished professionals of the German film industry take on the role of a mentor, ready to share precious experiences with the participants and offer useful guidance and advice. The scholarship granted by Medienboard covers in full the residence and transport expenses (two-way plane ticket), matched by a monthly stipend of 1,200 euros for every participant. In the two previous years, the two selected candidates of the “Berlin AiR: Thessaloniki-Berlin” residency program were film director and screenwriter Sonia Liza Kentermann and film director Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis.
German-Polish film director Ewa Wikiel will make the same journey, but the other way round, from Berlin to Thessaloniki, as the selected candidate of the counterpart branch of Medienboard’s residency program “Berlin AiR: Berlin-Thessaloniki”. Having a series of short films under her belt, Wikiel had her full-length directorial debut with the film Krzyk: Losing Control (2024). During her stay in Thessaloniki, she will conduct research and work on the script of her upcoming project Other Sea Odyssey, while having the opportunity to attend the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the entirety of Agora’s activities and events. In the two previous years, the two selected candidates of the “Berlin AiR: Berlin-Thessaloniki” residency program were film director Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu from Moldova and film director Rand Beiruty from Jordan.
