Michel Dimopoulos, former director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, has died. He turned 74.
Dimopoulos was the artistic director of Thessaloniki from 1991 to 2005. In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the festival said that during his tenure Dimopoulos brought a “fresh breath of originality” to Thessaloniki and “broadened the institution’s international horizons”.
“Michel has always been on the side of the festival and its people. He was an avid film buff and a passionate supporter of independent European cinema,” the statement read.
“He will live on in the corridors of Olympion, in the harbor, in the cinemas, tirelessly and with a smile on his face, full of feeling for the films he loved, broadening our horizons and introducing us to the pioneering and restless cinema of the new era.”
Dimopoulos was born in 1949 in Paris. He studied film in France and began his career as a film critic at Avgi, a leftist daily in Athens, Greece.
In 1995 he was a member of the jury for the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This year the award went to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi for The white balloon. He was a member of the jury for Un Certain Regard in Cannes in 2004 when the top prize went to Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu. Death of Mr. Lazarescu.
Dimopoulos also had cameo roles in several Greek films such as Athina Rachel Tsangaris Attenberg.
“Our deepest condolences go out to his family and loved ones,” the festival’s statement concluded.
Source: Deadline
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