Yannis Smaragdis

We are pleased to announce another speaker in the TEDxThessaloniki lineup! An awarded film director and honorary member of the Directors’ Guild of America, Yannis Smaragdis first studied film in Greece and France.  His debut in 1972, the short film Two Three Things…, received the First Prize at the Athens Film Festival, as well as a Special Mention at the Montreal Film Festival. Since then he  has worked on documentaries, films, television series and opera staging.

His film Cavafy (1996) was awarded with the Greek State Awards for Best Film and Best Director, participated at the Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals and was nominated for a Felix European Film Award. An international production and a major box-office success, El Greco (2007) was awarded with eight Greek State Awards (for, among others, Best Film and Best Director) and participated in major film festivals around the world (such as Toronto, Sao Paolo and Cairo).

Other major films by Smaragdis include God Loves Caviar, Spyros Louis, Les enfants gâtés, Ave Taso Karatasso, The Aegean: From Homer to Elytis, and Intrigues in Constantinople (Hadjimanuel). Yannis Smaragdis has also taught Mass Media courses at the Panteion University of Athens, as well as film direction and screenwriting at various film schools in Greece. He has published two books: Poetic Geography (1995) and CAVAFY (1997) – a literary form of the script of his film Cavafy.