25/10/2013 - Head of Stefi Productions elected HFA president without competition, in election process that fails to gather member participation.

Vasilis Katsoufis was elected president of the Hellenic Film Academy last Sunday, thus becoming the first producer to head the HFA after two reigns by directors. Tassos Boulmetis was the Academy’s first two-year term president, and Katerina Evangelakou followed.

Co-founder and head of local power-house Stefi Productions, Katsoufis was the sole nominee for the position, at an election that failed to gather electors’ interest: less than half of the Academy’s voters showed up at the ballots.

Mainly a TV series and advertisement production house, Stefi’s recent film credits include last year’s HFA winner Boy Eating the Bird’s Food [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Toronto-screened Standing Aside Watching and Berlinale-featured The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elina Psykou
film profile].

Katsoufis will be heading a Governing Committee comprised of fellow producers Amanda Livanou (GC member) and George Lykiardopoulos (treasurer), as well as directors Christos Georgiou (GC member) and Alexis Kardaras (vice president), cinematographer George Frentzos (vice president) and actor Giorgos Pyrpassopoulos (secretary general).

Entering its fifth year since it was founded, the HFA has this time opted for a smaller Governing Committee of seven members (instead of previous years’ nine-member committees), while two more members will be serving as alternates (directors Layia Giourgou and Ilias Dimitriou) and the auditing committee will be composed of three members (producer Konstantinos Moriatis, producer Dimitris Athanitis and actor Giorgos Makris) with one more alternate member (director Hronis Theoharis).