Artistic directors
Our Mission
The Festival aims to broaden its appeal within the geographical boundaries of Cyprus, as well as to attract both industry professionals and audiences from abroad by becoming a cinematographic meeting point for the three continents surrounding the island.
The Festival aims at:
- contributing to the development, promotion and mobility of the art of Filmmaking in Cyprus and the wider region;
- screening the work of filmmakers from across the world and introducing their work to the audience of Cyprus;
- serving as a hub for films originating from the three neighbouring continents of Cyprus.
Argyro Nicolaou is a filmmaker and academic. She has taught film studies and literature at Princeton and Columbia Universities in the US. Her short films screened at festivals in Europe and the US (POFF Shorts, Asolo Art Film Festival, Lemesos Int’l Documentary Festival, Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, DC Shorts Fest etc), while she also organised and took part in film and visual arts programming in New York, Athens and Cyprus (Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival, Gallatin Galleries NYU, space52, The Island Club). Her writing has been published in the Boston Art Review, MoMA post, and the American Historical Review. Argyro received a PhD in Comparative Literature and Critical Media Practice from Harvard University, while in 2018-19 she worked for the curatorial Department of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. She is a member of the European Film Academy, the Directors Guild of Cyprus and the Visual Artists and Art Theorists Association.
Marios Lizides is an award-winning filmmaker, cinematographer and editor. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a specialisation in Creative Documentary. Since 2019, he has been serving as a board member of the Directors Guild of Cyprus. He has taught practice and history of documentary and alternative cinema. His short experimental documentaries have premiered at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, and have screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival and Athens International Film Festival among others. His graduation short Wax and feathers has won Best Film & Best Directing Awards at the 9th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus, Special Jury Award at Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF), Audience Award at Paphos International Film Festival and Cinematic Achievement Award at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. He is a Ji.hlava Academy graduate and an EFA member.