Sotiris Petridis is a freelance filmmaker based in Thessaloniki, Greece,
with several short films, a feature film and selected audiovisual spots in
his filmography.
He is an adjunct professor and a postdoctoral
researcher in film studies at the Film School of Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki.
He holds an integrated Master's Degree in Film
Studies from Aristotle University, a Master’s Degree in Art, Law and
Economy from the International Hellenic University, and a PhD In Film
Studies with a fellowship from the Onassis Foundation.
He has been
systematically writing scripts and producing films, while he has also
directed four short films, which have been screened around the world and
awarded by several international film festivals.
More
specifically, his filmography includes award-winning films such as The
Balloon (2013), e-Social (2015) White Collar (2016), #NotAlone (2017), 9023
(2017) and Re-Live (2019). His films have traveled to over 40
countries and 400 International Film Festivals, winning a plethora of
awards. These include the Best Original Screenplay Award for
e-Social at Festicini - Festival Internacional de Cinema Independente,
Brazil (2015) and the Best Short Film Award for #NotAlone from the
Horrorant Film Festival (2017). In 2020, his short film (as a
screenwriter and a director), 9023, was screened at My Darling Quarantine
Short Film Festival presented by Talking Shorts and created by programmers
of major film festivals around the globe. There, the film was
awarded as the Audience Favourite.
His first feature film (as a
screenwriter and a producer), Scopophilia (2018), premiered at Thessaloniki
International Film Festival, where it won the Special Youth Jury Award. The film continued its success, while it has received the Maryland
International Film Festival's Best Foreign Language Film Award, and has
also been screened at Comic-Con International, in the US, one of the
world's largest pop culture events. So far, Scopophilia has 16
official selections at film festivals worldwide, and in February 2019, the
film was screened in Greek cinemas.
In 2019, he won the Best
Short Screenplay Award from the Greek Screenwriters Guild with his script,
Super-Amanda. This script has also been selected and participated in
the Script Station of Sarajevo Talents, a program being held at the
Sarajevo Film Festival in collaboration with the Berlin International Film
Festival. In July 2020, this script was funded by the Greek Film
Centre and the Greek Ministry of Culture as an exceptional project and
passed in the second phase, where it can be eligible for a complete project
funding.
In addition to creating films, he also deals with
academic research and teaching of the audiovisual medium. Since
2012, he has taught film courses at various private and public schools in
Thessaloniki, such as the Andreas Voutsinas School of Drama, the Ksini
Institute of Vocational Training, the AKMI Institute of Vocational Training
and the Art School of Thessaloniki. From 2015 until today, he
teaches Film Theory and Screenwriting courses at the Film School
Department of Aristotle University. At the same time, he has written
academic books and articles on cinema and audiovisual narrative. He
also contacts a postdoc research regarding the structuring of audiovisual
narratives, which is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European
Social Fund-ESF) through the Greek State Scholarships Foundation
(ΙΚΥ).
He is a member of the Greek Film Academy, a member of
the European Film Academy, a member of the Greek Screenwriters Guild, and
has served as a President of the Youth Jury at the 57th Thessaloniki
International Film Festival. In 2019, he participated in Sarajevo
Talents, which is organized by the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Berlin
International Film Festival. In 2020 he participated again as an
alumnus in Sarajevo Talents and in its Script Station, in which he worked
his new feature script, Act 9023, which is based on the fictional world of
his short film, 9023. Finally, in 2020 he was one of the
participants of the Thessaloniki –
Locarno Industry Academy.
