The 20 best Greek Film Directors
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- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Theo Angelopoulos began to study law in Athens but broke up his studies to go to the Sorbonne in Paris in order to study literature. When he had finished his studies, he wanted to attend the School of Cinema at Paris but decided instead to go back to Greece. There he worked as a journalist and critic for the newspaper "Demokratiki Allaghi" until it was banned by the military after a coup d'état. Now unemployed, he decided to make his first movie, Anaparastasi (1970). Internationally successful was his trilogy about the history of Greece from 1930 to 1970 consisting of Days of '36 (1972), The Travelling Players (1975), and Oi kynigoi (1977). After the end of the dictatorship in Greece, Angelopoulos went to Italy, where he worked with RAI (and more money). His movies then became less political.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Costa-Gavras was born on 12 February 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Michael Cacoyannis was born on 11 June 1922 in Limassol, Cyprus. He was a director and writer, known for Zorba the Greek (1964), Electra (1962) and Eroika (1960). He died on 25 July 2011 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts from which he graduated in 1948.
Because of his left-wing political beliefs, he was exiled in Makronisos Island after the end of World War II
He started his career, as a director, at the age of 28, on 1954, with the film "Maghiki Polis" (Enchanted City) that was influenced by neorealism. With his second film "Dracos" (Dragon) in 1956 came his national and international recognition for his cinematography.
Lately he was hospitalized because of respiratory problems
He passed away around 16:00 on the afternoon of February 22, 2017 at his home in Athens, close to his family, at the age of 91.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kostas Manoussakis was born in January 1929 in Greece. He was a director and writer, known for Prodosia (1964), The Fear (1966) and Love in the Sand Dunes (1958). He died on 26 August 2005 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Production Designer
- Writer
Nicos Perakis was born on 11 September 1944 in Alexandria, Egypt. He is a director and production designer, known for Loafing and Camouflage (1984), Sirens in the Aegean (2005) and Thilyki etaireia (1999).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied directing for Film and Television at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. Kinetta, his first feature film, played at Toronto and Berlin film festivals to critical acclaim. His second feature Dogtooth, won the "Un Certain Regard prize" at the 2009 Cannes film festival, followed by numerous awards at festivals worldwide. It was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award (Oscar) in 2011. Alps won the "Osella for best screenplay" at the 2011 Venice film festival and Best Film at the Sydney film festival in 2012. His first English language film The Lobster was presented in Competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Moreover, "The Lobster" was nominated for the (Oscar about the) Best Original Screenplay by the Academy and won Best Screenplay and Best Costume Design at the European Film Awards of 2015. His fifth project "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was also presented in Competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for the best Screenplay. Lanthimos's last film "The Favorite" is a historical Drama about the British Queen Anne.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Nikos Nikolaidis was born on 25 October 1939 in Athens, Greece. He was a writer and director, known for Morning Patrol (1987), Ta kourelia tragoudane akoma... (1979) and O hamenos ta pairnei ola (2002). He died on 5 September 2007 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Takis Kanellopoulos was born on 26 October 1933 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He was a director and writer, known for Parenthesi (1968), Ekdromi (1966) and Ouranos (1962). He died on 21 September 1990.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Giorgos Tzavellaswas a Greek film director, screenwriter, and playwright. His filmmaking was particularly influential, with critic Georges Sadoul considering him "one of the three major postwar Greek directors" (along with Michael Cacoyannis and Nikos Koundouros). Tzavellas wrote at least 26 plays, in addition to writing the scripts for all of his films. Among his notable films are Marinos Kontaras (1948), the drama O methystakas (1950), and Antigone (1961), a cinematic adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy. His adaptation of Antigone reimagined it in the language of realist cinema, omitting stylized elements of Greek stageplay such as the chorus, and attempting to convey the same information via setting and dialogue. In 1964 he was a member of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival. His masterpiece, however, is the 1955 film The Counterfeit Coin (1955), a film in four parts, linking the stories of several people through their transactions of a single counterfeit gold coin.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Alekos Sakellarios was a Greek writer and a director. He was born in Athens and grew up in Agios Panteleimonas and began to study journalism and acting at a young age. He wrote his first theatrical play in 1935 called The King of Halva. He entered the film industry and had roles in both screenwriting and directing. He directed mainly with Hristos Giannakopoulos and together they wrote and produced an estimated 140 works. The most popular include: The Germans Strike Again, Thanasakis o politevomenos, I theia ap' to Chicago, Dikoi mas anthropoi, Ena votsalo sti limni, Kalos ilthe to dollario, Ta kitrina gantia, Otan leipei i gata, I soferina, Laterna, ftoheia kai filotimo, Alimono stous neous and more. Many of these theatrical plays were transferred to the cinema with notable success. He also wrote the lyrics of many songs (over 2,000). The significant journalist Freddie Germanos called him the "most clever Greek of the 20th century". He died in 1991 and is buried in the First Cemetery of Athens in a family grave.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
In his childhood he used to climb to the lighthouse of the nowadays ghost-town of Koprena, where he was raised, and daydream he was in a ship, sailing for distant places. His family, though, forbade a sailor's career. As things turned out, he became one of the two or three greatest film makers of the so-called golden era of the Greek cinema, the '60s. Three generations of Greeks laughed and cried with his movies. Those films are still very successful when broadcast on Greek TV. The sea is more than evident in his best known films. He had the reputation of a hard man to work with but he used to say, "making movies is a game, if we all respect its rules, we can enjoy the game, when someone breaks the rules the game is no longer amusing for the rest of the set". He spent many of the last years of his life by the sea, next to a pine forest, writing novels mostly for children.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
He studied film direction in Greece and worked in more than 40 films as an assistant director. In 1965 he made his first short film O kleftis (1965) and in 1967 his second short film, Tzimis o Tigris (1966) won many awards in several festivals. In 1972 he made his feature film debut, Anna's Engagement (1972) (Anna's Engagement), which won several wards in the Berlin Film Festival, London Film Festival and more. He spent six months in exile during the Greek junta in 1973. Then he made O megalos erotikos (The Great Love Songs) after Manos Hatzidakis's request about this documentary based on his music work.
In 1977 he directed the controversial political allegory Happy Day . In 1980 he directed _Eleftherios Venizelos: 1910-1927 (1980)_, a film based on the life of the Greek politician. In 1985 he directed Petrina hronia (Stone Years), a strong emotional drama in politically turbulent times based on a true story, which won a best actress award in the Venice Film Festival and was a great commercial success. In 1989 he directed I fanela me to '9' (1988), a film about a soccer player.
In 1992 he directed _Isyhes meres tou Avgoustou_ (Quiet Days in August), which won a special mention in the Berlin Film Festival. In 1996 came _Akropol_ based on the Greek theatre of the 50s and then in 1997 he directed It's a long road.
Father of director/actor Alexander Voulgaris and director Konstantina Voulgari.- Director
- Writer
- Set Decorator
Iannis Smaragdis was born in Crete in 1946. He studied Film in Greece and France. He made his first appearance in 1972 with the short film Two Three Things..., which received the first prize at the Athens Film Festival, as well as a Special Mention at the Montreal Film Festival. Iannis Smaragdis' career has been full of creativity and counts many successes. His most significant features are Cavafy (1996) and El Greco (2007). They were both very successful and award-winning films that participated in many international festivals, the most significant being the Toronto International Film Festival. On television, he touched the hearts of audiences with his Good night to you, Kyr Alexandre in 1980. In 1988 he directed the 13-episode series Hush... Our Country is Sleeping..., which is considered the best TV series since the beginning of television broadcasting in Greece. Iannis Smaragdis has directed many more TV series, such as Hadjimanuel (1984) and Les Enfants Gates (2001). He has also directed documentaries and essays: Spyros Louis (2004), I've brought to art (1998), Thus spake the city (1990-1993), to name a few. In 2007 he directed Opera of Shadows at the Athens Concert Hall. In 2012, he completed his new film God Loves Caviar, which officially participated at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in Greek theatres in October 2012 and was a box office hit for three consecutive weeks. Until 31 December 2012 it reached 350.000 admissions. He is currently working on his new project titled Nikos Kazantzakis, a film about the great Greek author and based on the latter's autobiography Report to Greco. On the internet he was also voted the most popular artist for the year 2012. Earlier this year he was appointed by the Istituto di Studi Giuridici Economici e Sociali Internazionali I.S.G.E.S.I. in Rome to the position of Manager of Cinema and Theatre and head of all scientific studies of the same department. He is a member of the Giuseppe Sciacca International Awards Committee.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Tonia Marketaki was born on 28 July 1942 in Athens, Greece. She was a director and writer, known for John the Violent (1973), Krystallines nyhtes (1992) and The Price of Love (1984). She died on 26 July 1994.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alexis Damianos was born on 21 January 1921 in Athens, Greece. He was an actor and director, known for ....mehri to ploio (1966), Evdokia (1971) and Iniohos (1995). He died on 4 May 2006 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Costas was raised in Egypt, and had a Greek education in Ambeteios School of Cairo. He speaks five languages, Greek, French, English, Italian and Arabic, and writes and creates in three (Greek, English and French). Interested in poetry and literature since a very early age, he was involved in theatre, and appeared and directed Greek amateur troupes in Cairo. He appeared also in Egyptian films as an extra, as well in 5 Greek films that where shot in Cairo, to be acquainted to the cinema as he aspired to become a film director. In 1957, he traveled to Greece, and studied in the High School of Cinema (Ioannides Vamvakas). He became a professional Assistant director in 1958, working for Nkos Koundouros film "The River" (To Potami). Since then, he organized the Group (Omada) for creating the rising "New Greek Cinema, and became one of the intellectual leaders of the Group. In 1961, he directed his first short film, that was censored by the Minister of Presidency as "anti-touristic". One year later, he directed (credited only as "technical advisor for the direction" the film "Enas Delikanis". By this time, he became a friend and collaborator of french director Jean-Daniel Pollet, and this relation followed until the french director's death. In 1965 he directed his first feature film, and in 1967 he flew to Paris, escaping from the Greek Dictatorship. He returned to Greece in 1973, and since he followed his activities in cinema, theatre, writing, music, journalism etc. In 1986 he met the composer Thesia Panayiotou, and up to now, they are companions in life and creation.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Nikos Tsiforos was born in 1912 in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a writer and director, known for The Last Mission (1949), Gypsy Blood (1956) and The Money Rich (1958). He died on 6 August 1970 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kostis Zois was born in 1931 in Mesolongi, Greece. He was a director and writer, known for Silouettes (1967), Drapetis (1968) and To alogo (1965). He died on 26 April 2024 in Athens, Greece.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Iakovos Kabanellis was born on 2 December 1922 in Hora, Naxos, Greece. He was a writer and director, known for The Cannon and the Nightingale (1968), Snow White and the 7 Bachelors (1960) and Stella (1955). He died on 29 March 2011 in Athens, Greece.