Greek filmmakers

Theodoros Angelopoulos (Greek: Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος) (born 27 April 1935) is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.
Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek military dictatorship known as the Regime of the Colonels. He made his first short film in 1968 and in the 1970s he began making a series of political feature films about modern Greece: Days of '36 (Meres Tou 36, 1972), The Travelling Players (O Thiassos, 1975) and The Hunters (I Kynighoi, 1977). He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous narrative structures as well as long takes (The Travelling Players, for example, consists of only 80 shots in about four hours of film). These takes often include meticulously choreographed and complicated scenes involving many actors. His regular collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, the screenwriter Tonino Guerra and the composer Eleni Karaindrou. Angelopoulos is considered by British film critics Derek Malcolm and David Thomso as one of the world's greatest living directors.

Awards:

• THE BROADCAST (1968)
  
  
  
  • 1968. Greek Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.

• RECONSTRUCTION (1970)
  
  
  
  • 1970. Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film, Best Actress Awards, Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.
  • 1971. Georges Sadoul Award as «Best Film of the Year Shown in France).
  • 1971. Best Foreign Film Award, Hyeres Film Festival.

• DAYS OF '36 (1970)
  
  
  
  • 1972. Best Director, Best Cinematography Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) Award for Best Film, Berlin Film Festival.

• The Travelling Players (1974-75)
  
  
  
  • 1975. International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Cannes.
  • 1975. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Greek Critics Association Awards, International Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • Interfilm Award, «Forum» 1975 Berlin Festival.
  • 1976. Best film of the Year, British Film Institute,
  • Italian Film Critics Association: Best Film in the World, 1970-80.
  • FIPRESCI: One of the Top Films in the History of Cinema.
  • Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan.
  • Best Film of the Year, Japan.
  • Golden Age Award, Brussels.

• THE HUNTERS (1977)
  
  
  
  • 1978. Golden Hugo Award for Best Film, Chicago Film Festival.

• MEGALEXANDROS (1980)
  
  
  
  • 1980. Golden Lion and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Venice Film Festival.

• Voyage to Cythera (1983)
  
  
  
  • Best Screenplay and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) Best Film Awards, 1984 Cannes Film Festival
  • Critics' Award, Rio Film Festival.

• Landscape in the Mist (1988)
  
  
  
  • 1988. Silver Lion Award for Best Director, Venice Film Festival.
  • 1989. Felix (Best European Film of the Year) Award
  • Golden Hugo Award for Best Director
  • Silver Plaque for Best Cinematography, Chicago Film Festival.

• Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
  
  
  
  • Grand Jury Prize and International Critics' Prize, 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
  • Felix of the Critics (Film of the Year 1995).

• Eternity and a Day (1998)
  
  
  
  • Palme d'Or, 1998 Cannes Film Festival
  • Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Elia Kazan (pronounced ē-LĒ-ä ka-ZAHN; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and co-founder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. Kazan was a three-time Academy Award winner, a five-time Tony Award winner, a four-time Golden Globes winner, as well as a recipient of numerous awards and nominations in other prestigious festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.

Theatrical

He became one of the most visible members of the New York elite. Kazan's stage acting credits include Men in White, Waiting for Lefty, Johnny Johnson, Golden Boy, and the 1940 revival of Liliom. Kazan directed A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), two of the plays that made Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force. He also directed All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman, (1949) the plays which did much the same for Arthur Miller. He received three Tony Awards, winning for All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and J.B.

Film Director

Kazan's history as a film director is equally noteworthy, if not more impressive. He won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). He elicited critically acclaimed performances from actors such as Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (the film version of Tennessee Williams' play), James Dean and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (adapted from the John Steinbeck novel), Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet in Wild River (1960), reportedly one of Kazan's favorite films, Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass and Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd. Before he began directing films, however, he occasionally played supporting roles in them, one of those films being the 1941 Blues in the Night.

Mihalis Kakogiannis (Greek: Μιχάλης Κακογιάννης) (born June 11, 1922) is a prominent Cypriot filmmaker best-known for his 1964 film Zorba the Greek. He also directed the 1983 Broadway revival of the musical based on the film. Much of his work is rooted in classical texts, especially those of the Greek tragedian Euripides. Kakogiannis has been nominated for an Academy Award 5 times, a record for any Cypriot artist. He received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations for Zorba the Greek, and two nominations in the Foreign Language Film category for Electra and Iphigenia.

  John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was a Greek-American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He appeared in many Hollywood films. He is most notable as an pioneer of American independent film. His films are noted for their use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.

Constantinos Gavras (born 13 February 1933), better known as Costa-Gavras (Κώστας Γαβράς), is a Greek born French filmmaker, best known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller, Z (1969). Most of his movies were made in French; starting with Missing (1982), several were made in English.

Nikos Koundouros (Greek: Νίκος Κούνδουρος), is a Greek film director, born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete in 1926. He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and was later exiled because of his political beliefs to the Makronissos island. At the age of 28 he decided to follow a career in cinematography, and started his career as a director of the film Magiki Polis (1954), where he combined his neorealism influences with his own artistic viewpoint. After the release of his complex and innovative film O Drakos, he found acceptance as a prominent artist in Greece and Europe, and acquired important awards in various international and Greek film festivals.

Nicholas David Rowland "Nick" Cassavetes (born May 21, 1959) is a Greek American film actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker.

He has appeared in the films Face/Off, The Wraith, Life, Class of 1999 II: The Substitute, Backstreet Dreams and The Astronaut's Wife, among others. He has directed several films, including John Q, Alpha Dog, She's So Lovely, Unhook the Stars, The Notebook, and My Sister's Keeper. He also adapted the screenplay for Blow and wrote the dialogue for the Justin Timberlake music video "What Goes Around... Comes Around".

Cassavetes came in 5th in the World Poker Tour Invitational Season 5 attempting an outrageous bluff. He is also appearing on season 5 of The Game Show Network's (GSN) 'High Stakes Poker'.

Alexandra Cassavetes (born 21 September 1965), nicknamed "Xan", is an American actress and director. She is the daughter of actor-director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. She is the granddaughter of actress Katherine Cassavetes. Cassavetes directed the feature-length documentary, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, which explores the historic influence of the cable television station Z Channel.

George Pan Cosmatos (January 4, 1941 in Florence, Italy - April 19, 2005 in Victoria, Canada) was a Italian/Greek film director. After studying film in London, he became assistant director to Otto Preminger on Exodus (1960), Leon Uris's epic about the birth of Israel. Thereafter he worked on Zorba the Greek (1964), in which Cosmatos had a small part as Boy with Acne. Cosmatos grew up in Egypt and Cyprus and is said to have spoken six languages. He was famous in Italy for the movies Rappresaglia (1973) with Marcello Mastroianni and The Cassandra Crossing (1976) with Sophia Loren. In 1979, he made the famous and successful World War II adventure movie Escape to Athena, starring a gigantic all star cast including Roger Moore, David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould and Claudia Cardinale. Cosmatos was nominated for a 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for his role as director of Rambo: First Blood Part II starring Sylvester Stallone. He also directed another Stallone vehicle, Cobra, in 1986.

Late in his career, Cosmatos received more praise for Tombstone, a 1993 Western movie about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. This film was particularly praised for the exceptional performance of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. Following Cosmatos' death, actor Kurt Russell, who starred as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, claimed that he, and not Cosmatos, was the actual director. Russell claimed that he had Cosmatos hired as the titular director after being assured by Sylvester Stallone that Cosmatos would allow Russell to do the actual directing. Russell also claimed that he promised Cosmatos to remain silent as to this arrangement until Cosmatos's death.

Peter Kambasis (born 22 September 1974) is a Greek Canadian-born writer/director known for his role as 'MC Terapetakia' in the online series about a controversial rap group known as "The Wife Beaters". He graduated from Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) in June 1999, where he received his Bachelor of Applied Arts in Film Production. It was there that he began to produce short film projects primarily for Internet downloading.

Peter had soon won "Best Fiction Film" at the Student Film and Video Festival in Montreal 1998 for his short film It's Not Easy Being Greek

After working for numerous internet companies, he finally landed work at a Post-Production Sound House called Trackworks Inc., where he worked as an Editing Assistant, and eventually, Sound Editor. There he worked with such directors as Atom Egoyan (Sweet Hereafter, Ararat), Don McKellar (Childstar), Bruce McDonald (Picture Claire, Hard Core Logo) and Paul Schrader (Autofocus).

Along with recording ADR and other sound effects, Peter had also performed voice-over work in numerous films and TV shows that include: "I Was A Sixth Grade Alien", "Picture Claire", "Ararat", "Autofocus".

He continues to write, direct and act in projects for his award winning website: PolyErgos.com/Films.

Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is a Greek American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humour and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. His films also revolve around adultery in marriage and relationships. He also tends to set his films in Omaha. He has scenes of historical landmarks and museums in his films, and tends to use actual people for minor roles (real cops play cops, real teachers play teachers, etc.). He frequently incorporates telephone monologues as a dramatic device. He also tends to cast actor Phil Reeves in his films. He is on the short list of directors who have final cut rights for their films. In 2005 he became a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). His writing partner is Jim Taylor.

Dean Tavoularis (born May 18, 1932) is a Greek American motion picture production designer whose work appeared in numerous box office hits such as The Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now, The Brink's Job, One from the Heart and Bonnie and Clyde.

Gregory Markopoulos (March 12, 1928 - November 12, 1992) was an Greek-American experimental filmmaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm films at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940's, and went on to become a notable co-founder -- with Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage and others -- of the New American Cinema movement, a contributor to Film Culture magazine, and an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1967, he and his partner Robert Beavers left the United States for permanent residence in Europe. Once ensconced in self-imposed exile, Markopoulos withdrew his films from circulation, refused any interviews, and insisted that a chapter about him be removed from the 2nd edition of Visionary Film, P. Adams Sitney's seminal study of American Avant-Garde Cinema. While he continued to make films, his work went largely unseen for almost thirty years.