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.
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.
