Spirou Dimitris

He was born in 1954 in the village of Diasella, Olympia. He studied theatre and film. At the beginning of his career, he worked as an actor, assistant director, TV editor, and screenwriter. In 1985, he founded Faos Films productions, a company with which he made feature and documentary films. Since 1989, he has been particularly active in the field of Children and Youth Cinema: at first he has written, directed, and produced the feature film The Flea (1991), which has received six first prize awards in International Film Festivals such as Berlin, Chicago, etc., and consequently he has coordinated film programs and TV productions. In 1997 and in collaboration with regional and local authorities of the Elis regional unit, he founded the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, of which he also serves as an artistic director. He has written extensively on children and youth cinema for Greek and International media, and has also presented his work at numerous conferences. In 2004, his book Children in François Truffaut’s Films was published. From 2008 to 2012 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the European Children’s Film Association. Parallel to these activities, he is active in the field of literature (poetry, short stories, novels) and often collaborates with art and culture magazines. In 1981 he received the First Prize in a national contest for poets under the age of 35 (the jury comprised three leading Greek poets: Yiannis Ritsos, Nikiforos Vrettakos, and Takis Sinopoulos). In 1993, Patakis Publications published his novel The Flea, which has reached 15 editions, as well as his novel The Music that Stopped Stone-Throwing in 2011.