12th Festival Jury

President

MATA KOURTI

Mata Kourti, President of the IASFF12 Jury, is a screenwriter and script consultant. She studied English Language and Literature and Film at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds an MA in Film Theory from the University of Kent, UK. Her screenplays have received funding from the Greek Film Centre, and the resulting films have been screened and awarded at both international and Greek film festivals. In 2024, the short film “Acheron”, written by Mata Kourti and directed by Konstantina Papadopoulou, was nominated for an Iris Award by the Hellenic Film Academy. Alongside her screenwriting work, she teaches filmmaking to children and adults and has trained educators through the Greek Film Centre’s CINEDU digital platform for schools. Since 2019, she has been a member of the Artistic Committee of the Olympus Festival Organization in Pieria and serves as Vice President of the Katerini Film Society. She has lived in both the United Kingdom and Sudan.

Members

NIKOS DIMINAKIS

Nikos Diminakis has been working as a music teacher in primary education since 2008. He holds a PhD from the Department of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), under the supervision of Professor K. Tsougras. He has published papers in the proceedings of both Greek and international musicological conferences. Between 2014 and 2023, he taught a range of courses at the Department of Music Studies, including Didgeridoo, Harmony, Vocal and Aural Training, Beatbox and Wind Instruments, and Extended Saxophone Techniques.
Since 2014, he has been actively exploring vocal techniques such as overtone singing and beatboxing, focusing on integrating them into the performance of wind instruments. Part of this work was documented in Tz. Georgiadou’s documentary “Beatbox & Wind Instruments – Nikos Diminakis”, which premiered at the 19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in 2017 and was later broadcast on ERT3. In recent years, he has collaborated closely with Thanasis Papakonstantinou on both studio recordings and live performances.

LIZA THEMELI

Liza Themeli is active in the fields of film education and film culture, with research interests focusing on film education and the history of cinema. She has collaborated with the International Olympia Film Festival for Children and Young People, as well as with the Greek Film Centre through the CINEDU educational platform. She is the founder of CINESTIA and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of WIFT GR (Women in Film & Television Greece). Her creative work includes the documentary “COMING SOON.”(PROSECHOS.), about the historic Ideal Cinema, and the documentary podcast “Filming Life as Matter”, exploring the life and work of filmmaker Frida Liappa.

KONSTANTINOS GOGOULOS

Konstantinos Gogoulos is an actor and graduate of the National Theatre of Greece Drama School. He works across theatre, film, and television. For his performance in the feature film “Her Job”, directed by Nikos Labôt, he received the Best Newcomer Actor Award at the Athens International Film Festival and was nominated for the Dimitris Horn Award. Alongside his acting career, he has directed theatre productions and collaborated on the writing of feature film screenplays.

GEORGE XANTHAKIS

George Xanthakis was born and lives in Ermoupoli, Syros, where he works as a secondary school teacher. He is a film critic, a full member of the Panhellenic Association of Film Critics (PEKK) and FIPRESCI, and studied History of Cinema and Directing at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has actively promoted film education by coordinating the “Let’s Go to the Cinema” program in the Cyclades and co-founding the “Friends of Cinema” film society on Syros. He is a regular contributor to Filmy.gr and serves as an External Reviewer for IMDb. He is the author of “CINEPILOGES: 100 Hidden Cinematic Gems” (2022) and “In the Heart of Darkness” (2026), and has also contributed to several publications by the Panhellenic Association of Film Critics.