11th BBB Short Film Festival – TEAM
ORGANISING TEAM

Dimitris Maragkos

Dimitris Maragkos
Dimitris Maragkos (Greece, 1982) holds a BA in Communication, Media and Culture from Panteion University of Athens and a Msc in International and European Studies from the University of Piraeus. For the last 12 years, he has worked as a communication specialist in Organizations that coordinate European and National programs for Education, Training and Research. Since May 2015 he has been an Independent EU expert speaker in the Team Europe Network, coordinated by the Representation of the European Commission in Greece. Within this network, he encourages dialogue between European institutions, young people and civil society. Currently, he works in the National Documentation Center, coordinating the “Knowledge and partnership bridges” project, an initiative that brings the high-quality human capital of Greece together and creates collaboration links between them.
In BBB he is responsible for elaborating and submitting applications for European Funded Programmes and Networking with National and European Organizations.

Veroniki Krikoni

Veroniki Krikoni
Veroniki Krikoni was born on 30th June of 1983 in Athens where she currently lives. Her studies in International and European Studies (Panteion University) and European Cultural Studies (Erasmus Mundus Euroculture Programme, Joint Master of Arts) offered her a cosmopolitan mindset and way of living. She has lived in Italy, Poland and the Netherlands, while she is familiar with the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.
She is actively involved in civil society and has established several cooperations with NGOs (Caravan Project, Hellenic History Foundation, Inter Alia etc) that wish to use art and creativity in order to make people re-imagine their own lived experience. Her expertise is in the field of arts & education, culture & audiovisual, visual analysis, Youth, related mostly with the project design and management of that kind of intercultural activities. From 2012 she is also actively involved in the field of composing, editing and submitting calls for proposals for EU Funded Programmes (Youth in Action Programmes, Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens, European Cultural Foundation, European Fund for the Balkans).
She has a growing interest in audiovisual productions, a curiosity about people’s stories and a strong feeling of making people’s voices to be heard through the power of moving images. The cinema has been the vehicle of her inspiration and the main tool of her research on the Europeanisation process in relation to the construction of cultural identities and their visual representation.
As a co-founder of the Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB), she is the organizer of its Short Film Festival, while she has also been responsible for the project design and management of several intercultural activities through non-typical ways of learning in the field of arts and education both in Greece and abroad. Through BBB she aspires to enhance youth mobility in the Balkans, to promote short film productions by young film-makers from the region and contribute to the reimagination of the Balkan identity vis-à-vis the European one.

Konstantina Karydi

Konstantina Karydi
Konstantina Karydi is a Special Advisor on European Affairs and Public Administration to the Mayor of Athens and Head of the Europe direct Office of the Municipality of Athens. She has worked as Research Fellow at the European think tank ELIAMEP focusing on participatory politics, governance, and urbanization. She is a fellow of the European network of excellency FutureLab Europe. She has studied Political Science, French (BA), and European Public Policy (MSc) at University College London (UCL) and Sorbonne Paris IV and is a PhD candidate at the University of Athens.
She is a co-founder of the organization involved in all aspects of BBB’s strategic activities and networking.

Vasiliki Maltasoglou

Vasiliki Maltasoglou
Vasiliki Maltasoglou (Greece, 1983) studied International and European Relations at Panteion University in Athens and she did her Masters in International Politics at City University of London. Her research is mainly focused on EU and Southeast Europe issues with a special interest in Turkey. She has undertaken research on Turkish External Relations, the Greek Crisis, and EU mobility.
Her professional expertise is in Marketing and Social Media and her passion for art and creativity. In the BBB team, she is the Communication Manager and she is dealing with all promotional activities of BBB at all fields (Film Festival, Workshops, Cultural Events, Research Projects) and holds the communication with the Filmmakers, Film Festivals, NGOs, Media and the public.

Spyridoula Loukopoulou

Spyridoula Loukopoulou
Spyridoula is 22 years old and is a student of International and European Relations at the University of Piraeus. She is actively involved in the cultural life of Athens, she participates in cultural events promoting greek tradition and culture. She has a growing interest in the field of education, innovation, training, culture and arts and how all these can reinforce young people to become more creative in their personal and professional life.

Rifat Erkek

Rifat Erkek
Rifat Erkek was born in Malatya, works, and lives in Istanbul, Turkey. He graduated from Ankara University Department of Journalism. After graduating, he studied at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in the USA. When he came back to Turkey he completed his master’s degree at Cinema, Television, Radio Department of Istanbul University. He worked in various film, Tv, and commercial projects. Also, he signed several short films with his crew. He and their crew won several awards at several international and national film festivals. He is going on making films and photographs. Also, He is working at the media company as a communication specialist.
INTERNS

Ioli Vavetsi

Ioli Vavetsi
Ioli is a student of international and European studies at the University of Piraeus. Throughout her studies, she has taken part in seminars on marketing and international relations. She is actively involved in voluntary programs related to the environment and culture. Ioli firmly believes that experiential learning and art can contribute to a deeper understanding of the world. Hence, she has taken part in workshops and non-formal learning programs, promoting an innovative form of learning.
The BBB short film Festival holds annual screenings in collaboration with international film festivals. Her main task was to contact their organizers in order to gather the necessary data, which will be used at the festival. With the festival’s time getting closer and closer, She contributed to the writing of the press releases, which will be presented on the organization’s page, aiming to reach the public.
Through her research on the collaborating film festivals and my subsequent communication with them, she had the opportunity to get to know their work and to maintain the contact between them and the BBB Short Film Festival.

Stefania Kotsifa

Stefania Kotsifa
Stefania is a pre-graduate student of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia, speaks 6 languages, and does her internship in BBB as a Program Intern/Assistant for the festival. Before she decided to enter Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies by my love and interest in this southeastern region of Europe, she once wanted to study cinematography (she still captures everything around her, amaturelly, to this day). 4 years later, the universe winked at her with this internship, by being surrounded by so many films! In BBB she mainly communicates with creators, directors, and producers, gathers material for the films, does the catalogue and the films’ listing on our site. If her name looks familiar, it’s from the 4000 mails she has harassed you with!

Eirini Vidali

Eirini Vidali
Eirini is a student at the Department of Statistics and Insurance Science, at the University of Piraeus. During college, she got an internship in Balkans Beyond Borders, and that was an opportunity for her to grow her skills and discover new capabilities.
In Balkans Beyond Borders, she works as a Social Media Assistant, as part of a team. Her responsibilities focus on managing BBB’s social media channels, creating written and graphic content, and working to develop social media campaigns for BBB’s Festival and events.
VOLUNTEERS

Stefanos Nastos

Stefanos Nastos
Experienced Company Representative with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. Currently working as a Greenlight Expert at Uber and volunteering as an IT Manager at Balkans Beyond Borders. Skilled in Requirements Analysis, Business Analysis, Economic Analysis, Business & Support Plans, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, Microsoft Office, and SQL. Strong professional with a Master of Science (MSc) focused on Information Security and Computer Forensics from the University of East London. Also, an amateur football player in a local football team as a goalkeeper.
Learn more: stefanosnastos.com

Georgia Anna Chondrou

Georgia Anna Chondrou
Georgia Anna is 21 years old and an undergraduate student in the Department of Communication, Media and Culture, at Panteion University. Due to her studies, she has a great interest in social media marketing, cultural events, and European programs or trainings. She also enjoys working voluntarily and expanding her skills.
In Balkans Beyond Borders, she works as a communication and marketing assistant in cooperation with the BBB Team. Mainly, she is helping with the website and creating communication plans and content for the social media channels of the organization, for BBB’s festivals and events.