International Jury
Xiaojuan Zhou
As President of Attraction Distribution and EP of Attraction Kids, Xiaojuan Zhou brings over three decades of experience and expertise in film and TV distribution and international cooperation. She was instrumental in raising Attraction Distribution (aka Delphis Films) to a position of world leadership in high quality and award-winning family films. She is highly respected by the industry as an expert in family entertainment. Her team has launched the international career of 200+ family films from around the world that garnered 1,000+ prizes and gave her company the reputation of ‘the UN of independent family films.’’ Ms Zhou has attended numerous festivals and sat on some of them as a panelist or jury member. She has obtained two master’s degrees from China and Canada in media studies, trained in Australia, completed a summer 2019 course at Harvard University, resides in Montreal and works in three languages.
Doros Dimitriou
He was born in Nicosia in 1970. He is a cinema historian, events’ organizer, and curator of film screenings. He is a member of CIFEJ, and a member of the Cinema Advisory Committee of Cyprus (SEKIN/ΣΕΚΙΝ – Συμβουλευτική Επιτροπή Κινηματογράφου). He is the vice-president and curator of events at the “Fotodos” Photography Club, curator of cinema programs at the Cultural Workshop Agion Omologiton, Nicosia, and one of the artistic directors of the "Images and Views of Alternative Cinema" (IVAC) festival. He is a collaborator of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus on various Film Education programs, under the title “The power and magic of cinema”. He is an advisor and jury member at the British Columbia Environmental Film Festival (BCEFF), in Vancouver, Canada. Doros presents lectures on the History of Cinema at various cultural organizations and schools in Cyprus. He has studied in London and holds degrees in Electronic Engineering (BEng) and Visual Theories/Cinema (MA).
Gert Hermans
He is from Belgium and he is working for JEF, a Belgian company for distribution, education and exhibition of young audience cinema. He works as a publicist and co-organises projects reaching out to the national youth film industry, involving production (children’s pitching panels, focus groups, youth documentary support) and formation (script development programme, seminars, etc.). He has collaborated on national and international projects promoting quality films for children and youngsters and worked with diverse target groups, such as young filmmakers, film festivals, prisoners, pre-schoolers, documentary makers, teachers, etc. As content & communication manager for ECFA (European Children’s Film Association) Gert Hermans is an active promoter and publicist for Europe’s biggest news and networking platform for children's film professionals. He is chief editor of the ECFA Journal and is involved as a freelancer in several European festivals as an industry networker.
Catarina Ramalho
Director, producer and programmer at PLAY- Lisbon International Children Film festival since it's foundation, 8 years ago. Has been working in production and coordination of several projects in TV, Cinema and performing arts. Parallel to the festival activity, Catarina started, in 2019, a new educational project of cinema classes to needy children from 8 to 10 years old from deprived urban neighbourhoods, in order to include cinema as a part of school curriculum across premier schools in Portugal.
Phaedra Vokali
She studied Piano, Marketing and Theory of Architecture in Athens, and Film in London, with a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY). She has worked as a film distributor and film critic, and in the Athens International Film Festival. In 2012 she took over the general management of the newly formed Marni Films, setting up the slate until 2019, implementing dozens of films and videos as a producer. She is an alumnus of the EAVE Producers Workshop, as well as of the Torino Film Lab (Script & Pitch, Framework). Her films (Suntan, Afterlov, etc) have been awarded and screened at International Film Festivals such as Rotterdam, SXSW, Locarno, Edinburgh, New York, European LUX Awards, and many more around the world. She is a fellow of Artworks and is currently preparing her directorial debut, entitled ENOMENA (“Untited”).
Kids & Docs Jury
Marije Veenstra
She started working for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2011. She is IDFA’s program manager Youth Competition and Education. The Youth Competition presents a world-class offering of documentary films for audiences aged eight to thirteen. The Educational Program for schools, which aims at getting the genre documentary introduced to a young audience, consists of school screenings during the festival, an educational online film catalogue Docschool Online and workshops and film projects throughout the year. In this way each year approximately 30.000 primary, secondary and high school students get access to high quality and international documentaries.
Yannis Kolozis
Yiannis Kolozis has worked as a director, editor, and cinematographer. He was drawn to fiction for a while but following his steps backwards he ended up in documentary. His first feature length documentary "Un Cóndor" was shot in Chile. During the 70s, he and his father started shooting his second documentary "Yiorgos of Kedros" that was completed in 2020.
Maria Leonida
She studied History, Art History and Filmmaking in Greece and the UK. She is a director with many documentaries in her filmography. She has also created applications that combine graphic design and interactivity and has collaborated in theatrical performances. In 2002-2003, she worked as the head of the audiovisual laboratory for refugee children on the Chicam project (Institute of Education, London) and the Melina Project - Arts in Education (Greek Ministry of Education). Since then, she has been systematically involved in teaching the use of image and sound to children, young people and adult educators in Greek and international programs. She is a founding member of the non-profit company Karpos, Center for Education which deals with the dissemination of audiovisual education to people of all ages. She has also designed and implemented media workshops in cooperation with many important institutions in Greece and abroad, on film language, screenplay and interdisciplinary learning. She has presented her laboratory work at Greek and European conferences and is a PhD candidate at the University of Athens.
Volker Petzold
He was born in 1951 in Halle (Saale) – East Germany. He studied Chemistry, Economics and Philosophy/Aesthetics. He graduated in 1983 with a Ph.D in Economics. Since 1993 he has worked as a freelance writer, publisher, festival organizer and adviser, especially for FilmFestival Cottbus, Film Festival dokumentART Neubrandenburg, International Children’s and Youth Film Festival SCHLiNGEL Chemnitz. He has conducted film history studies about several topics in the fields of feature, children’s film, animation and documentary.
Tanja Tlatlik
She is the project manager of the film festival doxs! documentaries for children and youth, which is embedded in the Duisburger Filmweek in Germany. The festival takes place in November but offers screenings and workshops for schools throughout the year, like the doku.klasse. Born in Essen, Tanja studied theatre and film and audiovisual media in Bochum (RUB), Paris (Sorbonne Nouvelle-3), Amsterdam (UvA) and Montréal (UdM). At the Ruhr University in Bochum she worked in the film and media library. After her studies she freelanced for festivals in the Ruhr Area and in Canada, like the Toronto Film Festival and TIFF Kids.
Children and Youth Juries
International Youth Jury
The members of the International Youth Jury from abroad are representatives of collaborating with Olympia Festival organizations:
Dmitri Dijkstra (JEF Festival for Youth Film and Audiovisual Experiment, Belgium)
Antonis Gkika (Greece)
Ayelén Molina-Heimlund (Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival, Norway)
Alma Schilder (Schlingel International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience, Germany)
Julie Skladalova (Zlín Festival / International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Czech Republic)
Filip Szuksztul (International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino!, Poland)
Jonah Weideveld (Cinekid, The Netherlands)
Children’s Juries (up to 12 years old)
Feature films jury
Giorgos Gkolfinopoulos
Georgia Xanthakou
Nefeli Koulouridi
Alexandra Lamai
Efstratios Michailidis
Olympia Basmatzidou
Markos Nikolaou
Manos Pavlopoulos
Panagiotis Sakellariou
Markos Somaripas-Chronopoulos
Marios Tzanakis Pediaditis
Vasiliki Fokadeli
Anna Chalkiadaki
Short fiction films jury
Ioanna Giannatou
Giorgos Kalogeropoulos
Marianna Kordopati
Nikolia Moutsou
Niki Birmpa
Fotios Papadopoulos
Marios Dionysios Skipis
Maria Adamantia Skouta
Aspasia Skyllakou
Alexandra Spyropoulou
Asimina Tzifa
Vasiliki Eleni Tsakiridi
Evangelia Chatzimichalaki
Short animated films jury
Tilemachos Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos
Christina Aretou
Atalanti Asdracha
Ariadni Vaki
Eftychia Ganatsiou
Ariadni Dimitropoulou
Dimitris Lagamtzis
Athanasios Manasakis
Nefeli Nikolaou
Ilias Ntais
Kyriaki Panigyraki
Konstantina Georgia Papadaki Papazachariou
Stelios Psarras
Documentary films jury
Kleio Vovou
Amyrsa Giannakaki
Artemis Gkiza
Lydia Maria Douloufaki
Dimitrios Gkanatsios
Chrysoyla Kyriannaki
Sofia Bantzi
Myrsini Paizi
Ioanna Panagiotopoulou
Iliana Panagouli
Konstantinos Pappas
Eleni Tsigkri
Aris Chatzinikolaou
Children’s Juries (over 13 years old)
Feature films jury
Artemis Galanaki
Semina Dimitrakopoulou
Giorgos Kalantzis
Panagiota Koutsiou
Eleni Konstantopoulou
Georgios Michailidis
Zoi Bekiou
Daniil Breka
Konstantina Domari
Ralena Rousiaki
Dimitris Stavropoulos
Andreas Stellakis
Dimitrios Stefanou
Short fiction films jury
Pablo Soto Gonzalez
Dimitrios Zezas
Filippia Koutsiou
Nikolaos Kyriakopoulos
Aikaterini Manasaki
Nikitas Markakis
Ioli Ianassa Otake
Anastasia Sacharidou
Maria Sgourou
Margarita Standtler
Dimitra Chatzopoulou
Myron Chalkiadakis
Angelos Charma
Short animated films jury
Ilektra Chatzidimitriou
Antonios Anreolas
Chrysi Roumpesou
Venetia Athanasopoulou
Nikolaos Kapsaskis Sohois
Ioanna Demadi
Olympia Papadopoulou
Katerina Papathanasiou
Andriana Asynou Saloniki
Katerina Tzoiti
Dafni Antoniadi Kalogianni
Katia Biba
Ioannis Chardas
Documentary films jury
Martha Asmi
Maria Galanaki
Pigi Grigoropoulou
Gerasimos Zezas
Ioanna Xyni
Panagiotis Kalliontzis
Giorgos Katsolis
Giorgos Lakiotis
Elena Lyra
Mirto Stella Mitsakou
Konstantina Nikolopoulou
Alexandros Sirpo
Kaiti Tsakalidou
English