pt-shorts: Potidania Film Festival

The 1st pt-shorts: July 2025

The 1st pt-shorts: Potidania Film Festival took place on July 26–27, 2025, in the mountainous village of Potidania, Dorida. The festival attracted more than 500 attendees and featured 16 short films from Greece and around the world.

Festival Overview

pt-shorts: Potidania Film Festival is an emerging short film festival set in the picturesque mountainous village of Potidania, Greece. With great success, the 1st pt-shorts: Potidania Film Festival concluded on July 26–27, 2025, in the mountainous village of Potidania, in the Dorida region. The festival attracted more than 500 attendees to Saturday’s screenings, while approximately 200 visitors stayed at least for one night for the first time in Potidania, Palaioxari, and Teichio—highlighting cultural tourism and the short film industry with pt-shorts as a key pillar.

A total of 40 volunteers—half of whom have no ties to the village—played a decisive role in delivering the event, which drew strong participation from filmmakers. A highlight was the presence of two international directors from France and Portugal, who visited Greece for the first time and presented their films to the Potidania audience. The program included screenings of 16 short films (11 international and 5 national), jury-led masterclasses, a press conference, and an awards ceremony.

pt-shorts Awards 2025

The jury—Phaedra Vokali, Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis and Flomaria Papadaki—presented the following awards:

Best Film: Greenhouse, by Giorgos Georgakopoulos

For a firmly constructed main character, thrown into a well-crafted dramaturgy that rages around him, and an ending delivered with confidence — answering what needs to be answered, while leaving cinema open, like life.

Best Director: Pássaro Memória, by Leonardo Martinelli

Leaping with agility from poetic essay to documentary and then to musical within a matter of minutes, the film illuminates the dark streets of Rio de Janeiro with a light as beautiful as it is fragile — a light we hope will continue to grow stronger.

Best Screenplay: Agente Imobiliário Sem Casa Para Viver, by Filipe Amorim

In the echo of the Maysles brothers, this film blurs the boundaries of its own construction and patiently, meticulously unravels the contemporary thread of a social concern that ultimately strikes at the heart.

Best Acting (shared by):

Érika Beatriz Santos (Descamar)
A performance that captivates with its strength and simplicity, from a young actress who, with courage and confidence, invites us into her character’s inner world — reminding us that cinema is first and foremost something we experience with the body.
Coralie Russier (La Confrontation)
For a performance crafted with geometric precision, unafraid of emotion, that gives shape and form to the entire film from the background of a supporting role.

Audience Award: Wings, by Fivos Imellos

Festival Jury 2025

Phaedra Vokali

Director, Screenwriter, Producer

Phaedra has produced more than 20 award-winning short films, is an EAVE Producers Network & Torino Film Lab alumnus, and co-founder of Late Bloomers production company. She was the first woman to serve as General Director of the Hellenic Film Academy (2021–2023). In 2022, she made her directorial debut with the short film ENOMENA at the Norwegian Short Film Festival. In 2025, she co-created the documentary US: A Movie About Bloody Hawk and is currently developing her first feature Unholy, supported by the GFC.

Flomaria Papadaki

Actor

Flomaria graduated with honors from the National Theatre of Greece Drama School in 2020 and has since collaborated in film with Sofia Exarchou, Yorgos Zois, Alexandros Voulgaris, Kleoniki Stanich, Phaedra Vokali, Isabella Margara, Eleni Poulopoulou, and Angel Saft, and in theater with Ektoras Lygizos, Yannis Skourletis, and Yannis Houvardas. She is a 2023 Talents Sarajevo alumna, and in June 2024, she was honored by the Hellenic Film Academy with the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in Animal by Sofia Exarchou.

Efthimis Kosemund - Sanidis

Director, Screenwriter

Born with dual Greek/German nationality, Efthimis studied Informatics Engineering in Athens and Contemporary Arts at Le Fresnoy - Studio National in France. His shorts have been screened and have won acclaim at major film festivals such as Venice, Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand, art venues like Forum des Images, Centre Pompidou and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and have been distributed on platforms like Festival Scope and Mubi. He is currently finishing his debut feature film.

Masterclasses 2025

Three jury-led masterclasses anchored pt-shorts’ educational core, each running ~90 minutes with an open-dialogue format.

Phaedra Vokali — “Small Stories, Big Experiences: How to Make a Short Film in Greece”

How can I make my first film with no budget? How do I prepare a funding application? How can I find a producer? This seminar addressed these and other questions, drawing inspiration and material from past experiences — successes, mistakes, and unexpected mishaps that were transformed into knowledge.

Flomaria Papadaki — “Acting and Cinema: Present and Discontinuities, Research, Imagination, Fragility”

The possible pathways and the personal tools of actors from the first encounter with the script to the actual shooting, in order to be present in front of the camera with credibility, honesty, and freedom.

Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis — “Seeing and Hearing, Beyond a Cinema of High-Fidelity”

Cinema, as a technical —and potentially artistic— medium, often carries with it goals of technical perfection that often tend to automatically dominate the process, a high-fidelity approach that smooths out rough edges and dulls personal language, in other words, the very condition for articulating a cinematic voice with intention. How can the filmmaker render the technical aspect of their craft transparent, embrace imperfection and simply manage to see and to hear?