Usually, when we hear about the extension of cooperation for 1 + 1 year, football comes to mind. The team is taken over by a coach and if all goes well, the two sides will continue to work together next year. “Something like that happens to me,” he answers with a laugh. Giannis Sakaridis whose tenure as its artistic director International Short Drama Film Festival yesterday it was extended precisely on such terms. Of course, the point for him is not to speak on the “field”, but to the new municipal government, which will appear after the elections in October next year and will have to approve (also) the appointment of Mr. Sakaridis. .

In any case, what the Greek director has accomplished in the roughly two years since the untimely death of his beloved predecessor, Antonis Papadopoulos, is no small feat. In the midst of the pandemic, the festival remained active, albeit in a hybrid way – with a physical and online presence, which, however, also had its advantages. “My job interview was done via Skype. It was certainly a difficult period, but thanks to the platform and other digital media, we were able to communicate with a lot more people and understand the existence of dynamics. In the first year alone, we had about 35,000 unique users, most of whom were under 30 years old. It was important, it made us think that we should pay more attention to educational and other programs aimed at this age,” says Mr. Sakaridis.

In this context, the festival has launched an international and national curriculum, as well as a collaboration with the Hellenic Open University, which includes, among other things, drama workshops. The KIDDO program, which puts children both behind and in front of the camera, will also make its debut at the 2023 event. Of course, the ongoing goal remains the interconnection of Greek Micromeks with the rest of the world. “From the very beginning, we have placed a lot of importance on extraversion, we have opened up to major festivals, and we are generally trying to help filmmakers find their audience in every possible way.”

Every institution with ambition, of course, also needs its own roof. Mr. Sakaridis confirms that the plan to move the organization’s headquarters to an old tobacco warehouse in the city has been finally abandoned; on the contrary, what is moving forward is the creation of a “park” cinema, which will presumably also house the festival on the site of the former Andrikakis camp. The vision of the artistic director, who these days is in Clermont-Ferrand for Europe’s largest micro-Maccadian festival, is a miniature of a French organization.