Theo Angelopoulos

Theo Angelopoulos was born in Athens in 1935. He enrolled at the Law School, University of Athens, but dropped out before graduation. In 1961, he moved to Paris, where he attended courses of French literature and ethnology at the Sorbonne University and film courses at the French Institute of Cinema (IDHEC) and the Musée de l’Homme. After his return to Greece in 1964, he worked as a film critic for the newspaper “Demokratiki Allaghi” until 1967. In 1968, he presented his short film debut, “Broadcast”, at the Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema. In 1970, his first feature film, “Reconstruction,” won the Best Film award the Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema and further awards abroad, marking the emergence of contemporary Greek cinema. Since then, he gained international acclaim with his masterpieces (“The Traveling Players,” “Alexander the Great,” “Voyage to Cythera,” “Landscape in the Mist,” “The Suspended Step of the Stork,” “Ulysses’ Gaze,” and “Eternity and a Day,” among others), was honored with awards at the world’s leading festivals (Palme d’Or, Grand Prix, and Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Félix Award-Best European Film of the Year, etc.), and is considered one of the greatest directors of contemporary cinema. He died on January 24, 2012.