Constantine Giannaris

Biography: Konstantinos Giannaris (Sydney, 1959) is a Greek film director. Born in Sydney. He studied economics, history and philosophy at Keele and Birmingham Universities in Britain. His film career began in England, where he completed short, low-budget independent films. He was involved in the 1982 experimental English documentary The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts in which gay teenagers ask English heterosexuals about their views on homosexuality. His first Greek film, A Place in the Sun in 1995, won the Best Greek Film Award at the Drama Short Film Festival. It was followed in the same year by the film Close to Paradise and in 1998 by the film From the Edge of the City, which won the second prize for Best Film of the Ministry of Culture. In 2001 he filmed Dekapentaugustos and in 2004 Homer. His films have been screened at many international film festivals and forums. His first feature film Near Paradise was financed and shot in London. Today he works and lives in Athens. He has openly declared that he is homosexual and an atheist.