Cyprus Film Days International Festival turns a new page and welcomes its newly-appointed artistic directors, filmmakers and academics Argyro Nicolaou and Marios Lizides. The Festival’s organisers extend their gratitude to the departing artistic directors, Tonia Mishiali, Costas Constandinides and Marios Stylianou, for their long-standing service and multi-faceted contribution in the development and expansion of this annual film institution.
Expanding the general objectives related to the establishment of the festival as an international institution that will play a significant and coherent role in the cinematographic events of the wider region of Cyprus, newly-appointed Argyro Nicolaou and Marios Lizides will leave their own mark and artistic take while setting new targets: to establish “a festival of creative encounters that will embrace social awareness and open discussion towards the discovery of new talents”. It is reminded that the Artistic Director of Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth, appointed last year, is film director and screenwriter Stavros Pamballis, while Danae Stylianou will continue to serve as the Head of Dot.on.the.map Industry Days, a programme dedicated to film professionals.
Argyro Nicolaou is a filmmaker and academic. She 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 organized and took part in film and visual arts programmes 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 collaborated with MoMA (New York) as a researcher in the curatorial Department of Media and Performance. She is a member of the Directors Guild of Cyprus and the Visual Artists and Art Theorists Association.
Marios Lizides is a film director, 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 latest short documentary titled Wax and Feathers screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and at Athens International Film Festival among others. The same film also won Best Film and 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 (PIFF) and Cinematic Achievement Award at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.
Cyprus Film Days International Festival is an annual event organized by the Deputy Ministry of Culture (Cultural Services) in collaboration with the Rialto Theatre.