BBB Team

Dimitris Maragkos

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.

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.

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 the 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 image. 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, 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.

Alexandros, Belgian Ambassador

Alexandros Vigkos is currently completing an advanced MSc in European integration & development at the Institute for European Studies of VUB, in Brussels. The fields he is interested in include amongst others, migration, European asylum policies, human rights and social integration. He is fascinated by the cultural richness and huge potential of the Balkan region and people. This potential can be exploited through education and close cooperation of the Balkan countries and this is where BBB’s role comes in. He is open for ideas and suggestions in order to contribute to BBB’s values through organizing events and activities.

Ana, Croatian Ambassador

Ana Grgić (PhD, University of St Andrews) is a film practitioner and a film studies scholar, whose work focuses on Balkan and East European cinemas, women’s film heritage, visual culture and film history. She is Associate Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania, and Associate Editor of Studies in World Cinema: A Critical Journal (BRILL).
She is author of the monograph, Early Cinema, Modernity and Visual Culture: The Imaginary of the Balkans (Amsterdam University Press, 2022), and co-editor of Contemporary Balkan Cinema: Transnational Exchanges and Global Circuits (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). Her research has been published in Early Popular Visual Culture, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, Short Film Studies, Film Quarterly, The Film Festival Yearbook, and Cinemas of Paris, and she has co-edited two journal special issues “Albanian cinema” (KinoKultura, 2016) and “Women Cutting Movies: Editors from East and Central Europe” (Apparatus, 2018).
Previously, she worked in the film industry for several years, starting with HBO’s hit television series Rome in Cinecittà, Italy, and later continued to work on several film projects in the visual effects department based in the UK (The Moving Picture Company, CBS production’s American Assassin, Fox production’s Bohemian Rhapsody).
As president of the Balkan Cultural Centre (Croatia), she co-organised a year-long film literacy travelling program, the 5C project (funded by Creative Europe Media programme, and Croatian Audiovisual Centre), and as a Board member of the Albanian Cinema Project she collaborated on the Archives in Motion film preservation and training workshops. She regularly follows Balkan documentary, fiction and experimental cinema on the festival circuit, and writes film reviews for the East European Film Bulletin, and she has been an ambassador of Balkans Beyond Borders since 2014.

Anelia, Bulgarian and UK (London) Ambassador

Anelia Fikiina hold s an MA degree in European Studies from King’s College London and a master’s degree in International Management. Anelia has a genuine interest in EU foreign policy and Western Balkans affairs and has done research on Europeanisation in Serbia. She is also interested in European integration and the debate around reforming the EU following the financial crisis.
Anelia was born and raised in Bulgaria and have lived in Lyon, Budapest, Madrid, Glasgow, Athens and London. In Athens, apart from being BBB’s Ambassador, Anelia was also working for Insider Magazine. Fluent in several languages, Anelia is passionate about international affairs, art and culture, and and uses any possibility to promote the diversity and richness of the Balkans.
Anelia is a communications professional based in London.

Bozhana, Bulgarian Ambassador (Sofia)

Bozhana Shoshkova has first completed her Bachelor in marketing and pursued a second  master degree in Advertising Management. Between 2012 and 2013 she was enrolled as a European volunteer with the organization of the 10th edition of the German Short Film Festival for youth, FiSH – Festival im StadtHafen in Rostock and participated as volunteer in various other film and art festivals. In 2014 she was working as festival programmer and project manager for the International short film festival IN THE PALACE, held annually in Bulgaria, where she was actively involved in the whole organization process of the festival as well as in the implementation of different youth mobility projects. At the moment, she is working for one of the leading European providers of tickets for various concerts, festivals, theatres, sports and cultural events. She is passionate about the audio visual culture as a communication medium in the modern society and what fascinates her the most is the artistic expression and power of the short film genre, used as tool for building bridges and establishing a dialog between different cultures.

Danijela, Montenegrin Ambassador (Niksic)

Danijela Radulovic, born in 1990 in Niksic, Montenegro has studied Production ( Ba ) and Film production ( Spec.Art )  at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje.  Participated in the program for young and talented filmmakers from Europe – Sarajevo Talent Campus 2013 (Sarajevo Film Festival),  participant of  Cinema City campus in Novi Sad 2013, won first prize for best pitch  project at the International Film Festival in Pristina for the film “Tranquility of blood”, participant of talent campus Balkan film connection, Serbia 2014.  Produced several short films (“Tranquility of blood”, “Intro” …), and produced and organized several cultural and artistic projects . Currently working at the Royal Theatre Zetski dom in Cetinje as a producer and PR, involved in the design and conception of the film segment of upcoming MIT festival.

Mariana, Spanish Ambassador

After graduating from the Film Studies program at NATFA, Sofia in 2005, Mariana has been working as a film and cultural journalist for several years. Pursuing a career shift, in 2010 she moved to Amsterdam to continue her education in the field of film archiving and curatorship. As part of the educational program, she completed an internship at Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona and she is currently living in the Catalan capital focusing on film festivals management and curating of content from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She has already curated “Visiones Balcanicas,” the first Balkan focus within the MECAL Short and Animation Film Festival in Barcelona (2015), the film cycle “Bulgaria, the Invisible Europe” at Barcelona’s Filmoteca de Catalunya and Madrid’s Filmoteca Española(2016), the Balkan Short Films selection for the installation Lògiques Naturals at Capella de Sant Joan, Vilafranca de Penedés (2017), and co-curated the Croation Focus within MECAL (2016). In 2016 she won the film criticism award of the Balkan cinema website Altcine.com, so she became an ambassador of Balkan Film for the 5C Project. She is currently handling social media and press communications for the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival.

Miruna, Romanian Ambassador

Miruna Troncotă (literary pseudonym Miruna Vlada) is Lecturer and Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of International Relations and European Integration at the National School for Political Studies and Administration (Bucharest, Romania). She received a PhD in International Relations at the same university with a study on the Europeanization of Bosnia Herzegovina from a constructivist perspective (Tritonic, 2014).  She had research fellowships in Berlin (Hertie School of Governance) and Ljubljana, and she conducted field research in Sarajevo and Prishtina. Miruna graduated the MA program of Political Theory and Analysis at the same university, completing also a study semester at Karl Franzens University (Graz, Austria). She participated in numerous national and international academic conferences focused on the Western Balkans. Her research interests are: EU Enlargement policy, EU foreign policy, Europeanization, the Western Balkans, Post-conflict societies, Constructivism, Critical Geopolitics.

Milica, New York city Ambassador

Milica Savic is a Serbian-American, born in Munich, Germany and raised in New York City. She sees her life in America is an opportunity to promote Balkan culture abroad. In 2013 she received her Bachelors degree from Bard College in Political Studies and Creative Writing, spending the last year of her studies researching and writing her thesis on Identity in the Serbian National Imaginary. In 2014 she received her double MA degree through the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade and Universite Lumiere de Lyon. She works in the cultural and arts sector in Belgrade and New York City. She is fluent in English, Serbian and German and is actively learning French and Russian.

Myrtia, French Amabassador

Myrtia Vellianiti is studying political sciences at the University of Sciences Po Rennes in France. Because of her double origin (Greek and French) she decided to spend her third year in Greece. After 7 months of internship in a sociological research center where she got a better understanding of the sociological and political issues of Greece and the Balkans, she decided to take action by joining the team of BBB as intern. She believes that in this time of deep crisis people need to build and think about ways of resistance and she strongly supports the idea that we need creative cooperation between cultures and individuals to defeat all kind of obstacles. BBB corresponds to her believes. When she heard about BBB she directly saw a perfect way to develop, share ideas and create but she also saw an organization that will give her a practical experience, helpful for her studies.

Rifat, Turkish Ambassador

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.

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.

Christina Triantafyllidou

Christina is 22 years old and is a graduate of the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia. Her background in the aforementioned subject, combined with an acute interest for foreign languages, the art of cinema and translation, drew her to volunteer for Balkans Beyond Borders as a translator for the festival’s short films. In doing so, she hopes to aid in achieving the organization’s goals of promoting the integration of the Balkan Region in the EU and encouraging more Balkan talents and creativity to come to light.