Yannis Smaragdis


Yannis Smaragdis is a Greek film director.

Biography

He was born in Crete in 1946 and studied film in Greece and Paris, France. He appeared in 1972 with his short film Two Three Things... which received the first prize in the Athens Festival as well as a Special Mention in the Montreal Film Festival. Yannis Smaragdis has taught Mass Media courses at the Panteion University of Athens, as well as film direction and screenwriting at film schools in Greece. He has published 2 books: Poetic Geography and Cavafy - a literary form of the script of the film Cavafy. Yannis Smaragdis is an honorary member of the Directors Guild of America.

Films

''Two Three Things'' (1972)

Short film.
Feature film.
A tribute to the life and work of Greek author Alexandros Papadiamantis.

''Alaloum'' (1982)

Feature film. Box office record.

''Homecoming Song'' (1983)

Feature film.
Biopic of Constantine P. Cavafy, called Kavafis in USA and UK - Feature film
A tribute to the first Greek modern Olympic Winner, Marathon runner Spyros Louis.
Biopic of the artist El Greco. Feature film based on a fictional story, international co-production.
Biopic of pirate turned business tycoon Ioannis Varvakis. The feature film is known in Greek as O Theos agapaei to haviari. international co-production. The Toronto Globe and Mail called it "laughably bad".
Biopic of writer Nikos Kazantzakis.

Other activities

Smaragdis has taught Mass Media courses at the Panteion University of Athens, as well as film direction and screenwriting at various film schools in Greece. He has published 2 books: «Poetic Geography», 1995 and «CAVAFY», 1997 - a literary form of the script of «Cavafy», the film.

Awards