Artistic Committee

She recently wrote, directed and produced her first feature film entitled “Committed”. This was an independent feature shot entirely in Cyprus that has been screened at international film festivals, distributed commercially in several territories and has been optioned for an American remake.

Prior to her feature, she directed two short documentaries and two short narrative films including “The Fiddler”, which was produced in Cyprus and awarded at the Drama International Short Film Festival in Greece in 2011.

Stelana graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University in South Africa and is inspired by stories with heart and humanity. She has a wealth of tales from her multi-cultural upbringing in countries with complicated political situations, like South Africa and Cyprus. Her current home is Limassol, Cyprus where she is developing new projects.

Born in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1973, her love for the moving image from an early age, led her to pursue her dream and become a filmmaker. She studied Media Production in the UK and in 1997 she moved back to Cyprus to start working as a director and producer, also creating her own production company. She has worked on other Directors’ short and feature films as 1st Assistant Director, Production Manager and Executive Producer. She has also exhibited her photography work many times over the years and won various awards in national and international photography competitions.

She loves experimenting with different mediums- in her career she has written, directed and produced for theatre, film, video and television in Cyprus and abroad, dealing with a variety of subjects and adopting original approaches. She has exhibited her work and participated in a big number of national and international film and performance festivals. Particularly, the experimental performance “Inanimate collateral loop” (2011), a collaboration with a choreographer and an applied artist, participated in the group video exhibition “Undefine” at Marl’s Glass-Box Museum in Marl, Germany. Her second short film, “Dead End” (2013), has won 5 awards (2 of which for“Best Director”) and numerous nominations, including the Golden Pardino – Leopards of tomorrow for the film’s official selection at the 66th Locarno Film Festival, where it also made its World premiere. The same film was officially selected in more than 35 International Film Festivals all over the world. Her latest film “Lullaby of the Butterfly” (2014) was officially selected at the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival for its World Premiere and has already won various other nominations and two awards. Tonia is now writing her debut feature film.