EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis).  This is a great recognition for Greek Arts, as director Giannis Smaradgis becomes a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, Austria.  The director of the remarkable movie “Kazantzakis” (first screened in New York in 2017) is now a member of an Academy with 38 Nobel Laureates and numerous other highly distinguished members.  Our warmest congratulations to Giannis, who is now working on a new movie, “Kapodistrias,” on the life of the leader of the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the first Governor of Greece.  This movie will also be first screened in New York!! 

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Director Giannis Smaragdis Elected To the European Academy Of Sciences and Arts

Yiannis Smaragdis became the first Greek director to become a regular member of the European Academy based in Salzburg, Austria.

As a representative of modern Greek Culture, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts elected multi-awarded director Yiannis Smaragdis as a regular member by unanimous decision of its Council.

Yiannis Smaragdis becomes the first Greek director to become a regular member of the European Academy which was founded in 1990, has its headquarters in Salzburg, Austria, birthplace of Mozart, is under the auspices of the Presidency of 12 European States

Its members are 38 Nobel Prize winners and dozens of others with significant international distinctions. The official reception of Yannis Smaragdis as a new academician in the Arts class will occur at a special event at the Academy’s headquarters in Salzburg on March 9.

This is an honorary distinction of general value and at the same time, rewarding the Greek director with the deepest Greek imprint throughout his work for 40 years, with reference to the great forms and values ​​of universal Hellenism, from Homer and the classics, the three great civilizations ( Minoan, Ancient, Byzantine) to the series of great scientists from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the leading scientists and the modern poets Cavafy, Seferi, Elytis, and the writer Kazantzakis.

Director’s statement

I consider it a great honor to be elected by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts as its member, and indeed in the field of Arts and Culture. I accept this distinction as my triple duty: a duty of honor and memory for the Greek directors of Cinema and Theater, who wrote a brilliant history in their field with world successes, with films and with theatrical performances. My task is to try, within the framework of the Academy, to enrich it with representatives of modern Greece in the fields of Spirit and Fine Arts. There are important Greeks who deserve it from the fields of Music, Painting, Literature, Theater.
It is my duty to address in particular the creators of Cinema and Television, where several Greek directors with international horizons are already distinguished, to remind not of any success and recognition of my own, but the rule that all the great creators of our nation in recent centuries, the Fathers of the newest Greek Culture, in all the arts they fertilized the great Greek values ​​with the modern international currents and creative pursuits. With this combination, they integrated their works into our national and at the same time European, ecumenical and global tradition. Only this combination, with deep national roots and modern pursuits, has led every creator, of every country, to personal recognition and recognition of far-reaching and timeless value.

Biography

In addition to being an academician in a European Academy, Yannis Smaragdis has received multiple distinctions and won many awards inside and outside Greece. His films have been a great success and loved by the public, and he is also particularly popular, having been voted twice as the most popular Greek artist.

He met great love as a teacher and professor both at the Pantheon university where he taught and at the drama and film schools.

Yiannis Smaragdis was born in 1946 in Heraklion, Crete. He studied directing in Greece and Paris. In 1972, he first appeared with the short film Two Three Things… (12′), for which he received the first prize in Greece and a distinction at the Montreal Festival in Canada.

His most important films are:
2024: KAPODISTRIAS – Preparation for the completion of the film on the life and work of the great Greek politician and visionary Ioannis Kapodistrias.

*Before the film’s shooting even started, Yiannis Smaragdis was honored with the 1st International Ioannis Kapodistrias Award by the Hellenic Academy of Art Awards.

2017: KAZANTZAKIS – Film based on the autobiographical work of the writer Nikos Kazantzakis Reference to Greko.The film was released in cinemas on 23 November 2017, reaching the top spot at the Greek Box Office.
*Official participation in the 51st International Film Festival in Houston (Worldfest) in the USA, the film received four awards:
*Grand Remi Award for Best Film (for Eleni Smaragdi)
*Gold Remi Award for Best Music for Mino Matsa
*Gold Remi Award for Best Picture for the Best Actor Award for Odysseus Papaspiliopoulos from the American Critics Association
*Audience Award at the Greek Film Expo in New York
*Audience Award at the Greek Film Expo in Atlanta
*He was awarded the “Personality 2019” award for the film Kazantzakis by the Academy of Greek Art Awards
*Honorary screening at UNESCO in Paris
*Triumphant Screening at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York

Participation in many international festivals

2012: GOD LOVES CAVIAR – Film, international co-production (Greece, Spain, Hungary). It reached No. 2 at the Greek box office. International distribution.
*Official participation in the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and other international festivals.
*Giuseppe Sciacca Award for actress Olga Sutulova.

2007: EL GRECO – Film, International Co-Production
*Ticket record in Greece (1,200,000 viewers). Since then it has not been surpassed
this record.
*Ranked first best film among the five golden films in its festival
Toronto 2008 from SBS.
*8 State Awards at the Thessaloniki Festival: 1st prize for best film, (for
Eleni Smaragdi) for best direction etc and at the same Festival Award
audience and Technical Excellence Award. *First prize to actor Juan Diego Botto
at the 2008 Cairo International Festival
*GOYA Award for the film’s costumes to costume designer Lala Huete.
*Vatican International Award “GIUSEPPE SCIACCA 2008”, in Rome as the best
European director of the year 2008 for the film EL GRECO.
*Honorary “Sophiis” award in Delphi in 2008 from the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens.
*Official participation in international film festivals such as:
Toronto European Film Festival of American Film
Institute in Washington, etc.

1996: KAVAFIS – Film: For 12 consecutive years it was screened at the Accattone cinema in Paris. A record that has not been achieved by any other purely Greek film.
*5 State Awards: Award for best film, (for Eleni Smaragdi) and director, etc.
*Two international music awards for Vangelis Papathanasiou from the festivals of Ghent, Belgium and Valencia, Spain.
Official participation in the Berlin, Toronto and other 50 international festivals

*Great box office success in Greece

*The Greek nomination for the European Film Awards (Felix Awards 1997)
1981: GOOD NIGHT MR. ALEXANDRE (PAPADIAMANTIS) – Excellent one hour TV movie with huge audience acceptance.
He has directed the OPERA OF THE SHADOWS for the Concert Hall, as well as several documentaries focusing mainly on poets and writers.

FROM HOMER TO ELYTI and two recent ones: REPORT TO IOANNIS KAPODISTRIA and KOLOKOTRONIS kindly sponsored by the KIKPE Foundation.

He has written the book GEOGRAPHY OF THE INVISIBLE published by KEDROS publications (out of print).
Three books have been written about the director’s three films: Yannis Smaragdis, the Architect of the Psyche: Good Night, Mr. Alexander (PAPADIAMANTIS) – sold out,

Cavafy and El Greco subtitled Giannis Smaragdis – The Architect of the Psyche by the thinker Mimi Tsakoniatis, from ARMOS publications.
He was Artistic Director at the cultural center of the Municipality of Halandri, and president of the International Kin/fu Festival from where he resigned after six months.
He has assigned all his films completely free of charge to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the country’s cultural diplomacy.

Source: skai.gr

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Ο Γιάννης Σμαραγδής ακαδημαϊκός στην Ευρώπη