Yannis Smaragdis

Iannis Smaragdis was born in Crete in 1946 He studied Film in Greece and France He made his first appearance in 1972 with the short film Two Three Things which received the first prize at the Athens Film Festival as well as a Special Mention at the Montreal Film Festival Iannis Smaragdis career has been full of creativity and counts many successes His most significant features are Cavafy 1996 and El Greco 2007 They were both very successful and awardwinning films that participated in many international festivals the most significant being the Toronto International Film Festival On television he touched the hearts of audiences with his Good night to you Kyr Alexandre in 1980 In 1988 he directed the 13episode series Hush Our Country is Sleeping which is considered the best TV series since the beginning of television broadcasting in Greece Iannis Smaragdis has directed many more TV series such as Hadjimanuel 1984 and Les Enfants Gates 2001 He has also directed documentaries and essays Spyros Louis 2004 Ive brought to art 1998 Thus spake the city 19901993 to name a few In 2007 he directed Opera of Shadows at the Athens Concert Hall In 2012 he completed his new film God Loves Caviar which officially participated at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival It was released in Greek theatres in October 2012 and was a box office hit for three consecutive weeks Until 31 December 2012 it reached 350000 admissions He is currently working on his new project titled Nikos Kazantzakis a film about the great Greek author and based on the latters autobiography Report to Greco On the internet he was also voted the most popular artist for the year 2012 Earlier this year he was appointed by the Istituto di Studi Giuridici Economici e Sociali Internazionali ISGESI in Rome to the position of Manager of Cinema and Theatre and head of all scientific studies of the same department He is a member of the Giuseppe Sciacca International Awards Committee