13th BBB Short Festival- Team

Vasiliki Maltasoglou

Vasiliki Maltasoglou (Greece, 1983) is Festival Director of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival and co-founder of the organization Balkans Beyond Borders. She studied International and European Relations at Panteion University in Athens and she completed her Masters in International Politics at the City University of London. She has had a great experience in international relations research, but the realization of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival has been for her the most important implementation of cultural diplomacy, through promoting regional cooperation among nations and focusing on young people.

She specializes in Digital Communication and Storytelling, and she undertakes storytelling and short film inspired workshops for adults and teenagers. She curates all Festival screenings and BBB screening events. She has been a Jury member in several short film festivals, such as BUZAU and Aegean Film Festival, Newborn Short Film Festival and others. All her actions are linked to her passion for creativity and communication.

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.

Konstantina Karydi

Born in Athens, Greece, Konstantina Karydi is an impact oriented professional with a track record in government, policy and the international philanthropy and civil society sectors. She is holder of the Global Executive Masters from EPFL, Switzerland on Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems and the MSc on European Public Policy from UCL, UK and currently serves as Senior Advisor for multilateral entities such as UNDRR – Making Cities Resilient Campaign 2030, the European Urban Initiative and other relevant European Commission agencies and organisations.

Konstantina’s motivation is to help expand the cultural and socio-political reality of the Balkans beyond the region’s borders, to support European integration and to assist artists and young leaders to express and make an impact. She has extensive experience in the region as researcher and civil society lead on issues of democracy, governance and resilience building. 

She is co-founder and currently serving as Non Executive VP of Balkans Beyond Borders.

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.

Niki Soumpassis

Niki Soumpassis is an independent researcher, filmmaker and is active in film production and coordination. She studied German Language and Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and holds an MA in Gender Studies, from the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. In 2021, her research was published in ‘Nation and Gender in Crisis, Masculinities take center stage’ (ed. Alexandra Halkias), futura publications. Her films have beens screened at the Bieannial Meeting of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, the Athens Festival of Queer Performance and recently in the ‘Thermia Project’ exhibition. She is interested in research practices which intersect anthropology, gender and film. She lives in Athens, Greece and is the Project Manager at Balkans Beyond Borders.

Rifat Erkek

Rifat Erkek was born in Malatya, works and lives in Istanbul, Turkey. He graduated from Ankara University Deparment 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.

Milcho Duli

Milcho Duli is the President and one of the founders of SFERA International. He has more than 12 years of experience in the youth work sector and has been working hands on with the youth organization since its beginning. He has a Master Degree in Economics; however, youth work, social development, and project management are his passion. He has been active in many local and international activities organized by SFERA International with a big influence on the local and national level, especially in the field of education focusing youngsters to development skills and competences. On an international level, he has participated in a great number of Erasmus + projects (and Youth in Action projects) as a participant and trainer in more than 15 Training Courses in different countries in Europe. Milcho has a variety of experiences especially in the areas of informal education, leadership, democracy, human rights, entrepreneurship and employability as his primary experience. He has brought the NGO to the next level of achievement in all sectors.

Katerina Popovska

Katerina Popovska is the Project Manager and General Secretary for SFERA International. She has been actively working with youth for 4 years; however, she has been volunteering with SFERA International for over 6 years. She has previous experience in working with local youth to promote and empower leadership, democracy and self-development. On the international level, she has participated in over 20 Youth Exchanges and Training Courses, and has been a leader in over 10 Youth Exchanges. Throughout the years with the organization, she has gained project management and leadership skills that makes her one of the most active youth workers in SFERA International. Katerina holds a Bachelor in Financial Management, and is currently working on her Master’s thesis’s topic “Social Responsibility of Companies.”

Christos Angelidis

Christos Angelidis is a passionate youngster with interest in cinema, philosophy and politics. He studies International Relations at the university of Piraeus specializing in Cultural Diplomacy and Digital Culture. His passion about culture drove him to travel across Europe through Erasmus+ projects developing culture awareness, networking and soft-power skills. As a festival developer in BBB he is taking the first step towards the world of cinema.

Ioanna Panagiotidou

She is an undergraduate student of the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, Strategic Planner at the regional cooperation oriented Greek NGO “SEE in Action”   and the Programme Content Manager for the 13th Balkans Beyond Borders Film Festival, “untiling” the mosaic. She has a growing interest in the field of regional cooperation, grass-root activities, the mobilization of Civil Society in the Balkan region, dispelling stereotypes & reinforcing young people to be more creative through art & culture.

Nicole Kanara

Nicole is 22 years old and an undergraduate student of Organization and Business Administration at university of Piraeus. She loves traveling and enjoys learning about other cultures through arts.

In Balkans Beyond Borders, she works as a social media assistant. In particular, she creates the content for social media channels of Balkans Beyond Borders.

Giannis Hlkos

Stella Petrakaki

Dimitris Makidis

Dimitris Makidis was born in 1983 in Komotini, Greece. He studied at the department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology at the University of Athens and did master studies on Sociology of Education. He has worked with minority groups, children of all ages, and adults as an educator, Greek language teacher, special education teacher, organizer of activities etc. He loves arts; he declares to be a photographer and he is practicing improvisation theater.