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Athenian Macedonian Press Agency

Original Link: https://goo.gl/pFVxc2

English Translation:

The award-winning 24-year-old photography director, Petros Antoniades, Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency.

He wanders the urban centres of Crete, collects pictures and material that is then transformed into thematic films for digital cinema. He is just 24 years and is the only student of Walter Lassally the director of photography who received the Academy Award for the film “Zorba the Greek” starring Anthony Quinn. He has already been awarded with 11 international and national awards and 5 nominations; with the International Athens Digital Cinema Festival honouring him for two consecutive years (2017 and 2018) for “The Spectator” and “Heimlich”.
Petros Antoniades tells us that it all starts with a dream…. “From my minor talent in painting inherited from my grandfather, Petros Vlachakis, which evolved into a love for photography and then to moving pictures. So, at the age of 10, I decided, one afternoon, after returning from school, and announced to my parents: “I will become a cameraman … For the next two years with homemade toy-like cameras (made out of Styrofoam, cardboard boxes, etc.) which were almost faithful copies of the real thing up until the summer of 2004, when I bought my first camera with the help of my parents and my grandfather.”
Young Petros began his career at “Akrotiri TV” before creating his first ever film with the title “The poor man who became rich”.

“That’s where I found my life source. It was the cinema, my dream and it was alive. In 2006, I finished my second short film “The Ideal” which is when I met Walter Lassally who was my mentor which I am truly blessed for. He guided me every step of the way until October 2017, when he unfortunately passed away.”
Despite his young age, he has travelled across Greece, Europe and the USA, collecting – as he says – images, sounds, voices and emotions. “All I care about is being behind the camera and making the images into a moving world. The dream has to be alive – you have to dive into the dream to live. If you don’t do what you have to you should not be disappointed. The dream that follows will be also be  yours.”
From 2004 until today, he is has established himself as the youngest director of photography, with a feature film (Eyolf), as well as 19 short films, 24 commercial films (TVCs, corporate), 4 music videos while he is currently producing another film.

Having won international and national awards, consecutive nominations, and, despite his young age, collaborations with well-known filmmakers, Petros Antoniadis insists that despite the general gloom that the crisis has caused in the country, there are opportunities for young people who want to open their wings and fly high. “We can’t let every difficulty destroy us … Many people ask me how I will feel after 10 or 20 years and if I will be tired with all of this. My reply is always the same: I will always feel ready to take off at any given moment. Because that’s what my home country and the difficulties here have taught me. To open my wings, to cooperate, to learn, to listen, to try, to work, but above all to not feel defeated. This is what we need as Greeks, the weapon of non-defeat. ”

“In every corner of the urban centers of Crete that I go to, I collect everything that touches me,” Petros Antoniades tells us with emotion: “There is so much and everything is actually so similar in other places that I visit beyond Greece … People are very similar. We’re the same. We may be different but we are so similar at the same time. This is why I feel that my teacher is justified when he tells me not to differentiate between people … just reach out and touch them and let them touch me. This is my goal despite my young age. To create movies that can touch people. Touch is not a defeat, but life. And our world, our planet has the need for life. “

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