- An awarded Greek film director, born in Athens, with cinema and architecture studies. His debut film Addio Berlin gained Jury's Prize and Critics Mention at Thessaloniki FF for it's innovating style, while No Sympathy for the Devil was nominated for Golden Alexander and gained the Best Actress Award in TIFF. 2000+1 Shots was selected by B.Mousoulis among the 10 best films for 2001 in Senses of Cinema. His last film Three Days Happiness had 4 major nominations at Greek Film Academy Awards, showing in a number of festivals.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimitri Athanitis
- Dimitri Athanitis is an outstanding Greek film director, member of the European Film Academy, founding member and first secretary of the Greek Film Academy. Born in Athens, he studied cinema and architecture.
His last film Medea (2022) gained 21 awards and was characterized as an "opti and sound ecstasy, rare in cinema today".
Invisible (2016) with 16 Awards at more than 40 festivals, playing for 17 weeks at Athens theaters and in more than 35 Greek cities, making an incredible record.
"For innovating Greek cinema" with his debut Addio Berlin (1994) he gained the Jury's Special Prize at Thessaloniki IFF. This low budget independent film became cult at once, while Athinorama noticed "maybe the next big name in Greek cinema".
His second feature, the provocative and classic now, No Sympathy For The Devil (1997), shot also in black and white, created a scandal in TIFF and gained the Best Actress Award, representing Greece at the International Competition, honored also by a Ministry of Culture Distinction.
2000+1 Shots (2001), Athanitis's film on millennium, combining fiction and documents, creates the mosaic of a city and the stigma of the whole world at a specific moment. It gained international recognition and in the cine bible Senses of Cinema, Bill Mousoulis chose it among the 10 best films in the world for 2001.
An Athens Summer Night's Dream (1999), a modern adaptation of the theatrical play, was included in Oxford's Shakespeare and World Cinema by Mark Burnette, while Planet Athens (2005), on the Athens Olympics, is the one and only fiction ever shot in real time during the Games.
Three Days Happiness (2012) gained 4 awards, had a high critical perception was presented in more than 30 festivals and was selected by the TIFF among the 100 all time top Greek films. His first documentary Labyrinth (2019) on Athens galleries, gained 5 awards.
Athanitis's short films are also extraordinary; Philosophy (1993) prophets the Greek bail out and gained the Phantasy Award at Drama IFF, Mister X (1994) is a silent story about a clerk living in his suitcase while Madonna Calls Fassbinder (2008) is actually what the title promises.
Athens Underground (2011-2018), a completely original reconstruction of the city's image based on 6+1 films of his, is a mega video installation in continuous progress. It was included in the world review for visual arts by the Italian Cultura Universale, 2/2012, the only Greek reference.
His first book Secret Encounters (2017), a cinematic voyage through meetings with stars, directors, writers and even underground figures, had a special first presentation at the Athens Book Festival and later in Thessaloniki Film Festival, Drama FF and many Greek cities. His second book Scripts (2020) contains the scripts of his first two films, Addio Berlin and No Sympathy for the Devil. Hiw third book The Seventh Continet / 60 Films For Ever (2022) is an anthology of 60 films from 120 years of cinema.
In December 2022, a seat was named Athanitis at the historic Studio art cinema at Athens, besides Theo Aggelopoulos seat.
A truly independent filmmaker, Dimitri Athanitis is also writer and producer of his films and always the sound and music designer. As an actor he has appeared in Radio Moscow, Strangers in a Strangeland, A Man for all Seasons, Addio Berlin, No Sympathy For The Devil, Vox, a.o.
His work is analyzed in many books like Poetics of Cinema, D. Bordwell, Mise en Scene and Film Style, A. Martin, Shakespeare and World Cinema, M. Burnette, Ethnic Cinematographies, T. Soumas and others.
As an architect, Dimitri Athanitis has gained three awards (1986-1990), with more important that (in collaboration) for "The third square of Athens".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Theo
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