Athina Rachel Tsangari

Athina Rachel Tsangari is a Greek filmmaker and projection designer. --- Athina Rachel Tsangari studied literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, performance studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and film directing at the University of Texas at Austin. Her first experience working in film was with a small role in Richard Linklater's 1991 film Slacker. Her first feature, The Slow Business of Going (2000) premièred at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2000 and won best film at the New York Underground Film Festival in 2002. The film was described by Domitila Bedel in Senses of Cinema as "a permanent erection for the eye". She was the founding and artistic director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, which ran from 1995 to 2006. She was also a member of the creative team headed by Dimitris Papaioannou which designed the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, serving as the projection designer and video director. She has continued to work as a projection designer. In 2007 she designed the stage projects for the dance theatre work "2" by Dimitris Papaioannou. In 2008, she designed the video displays and projections for "A Greek Ceremony" - Beijing Capital Museum Exhibit on the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in 2008. And in 2009, she created "Reflections", a series of large-scale projections commissioned for the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. She founded Haos Film, a production and post-production studio based in Athens, in 2005. Her producing credits include three films directed by Yorgos Lanthimos: Kinetta (2005), Dogtooth (2009), as an associate producer, and Alps (2011). Her second feature as a director, Attenberg, premièred in the main competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010, where it won the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actress for its protagonist, Ariane Labed. The film was Greece's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards. Tsangari's upcoming feature Duncharon was awarded the ARTE France Cinéma Award for best project at the International Film Festival Rotterdam CineMart 2012. In 2013 she will be a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.