Iris Close-Up

A New International Initiative by the Hellenic Film Academy

In the lead-up to the 2026 Iris Awards, the Hellenic Film Academy is launching
Iris Close-Up, a new public programme of conversations and masterclasses
featuring some of the most compelling voices in contemporary international
cinema.
Conceived as a platform for dialogue, inspiration and exchange, Iris Close-Up
expands the scope of the Iris Awards beyond the annual award ceremony, creating
opportunities for meaningful encounters between Greek and European film
professionals, while strengthening the international visibility of Greek
filmmaking.
The 2026 edition is part of a wider cultural programme leading up
to the European Film Awards – Athens 2027, which will bring Europe’s most
prestigious film event to the Greek capital in January 2027. Iris Close-Up and
a series of forthcoming initiatives are included in a broader programme
developed by the Hellenic Film Academy in collaboration with and supported
by the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (EKKOMED), the organisation
responsible for hosting the European Film Awards in Greece.

The inaugural edition of Iris Close-Up welcomes two exceptional and
internationally acclaimed European artists: filmmaker Anna Hints and actress
Vicky Krieps, who will each present a masterclass at Onassis Stegi on
Tuesday, 16 June. Admission is free to the public.

ANNA HINTS
Creative Fire
What does it take to create work that burns with passion, and how can you
keep that fire alive without burning out?
Anna Hints, director of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood—winner of Best Director at
Sundance and the European Film Academy Award for Best Documentary
2023—joins us for an intimate moderated conversation about the inner life of
a filmmaker. From the rituals and silences that feed creativity, to the cost of
radical vulnerability on screen, Anna reflects on how to stay creatively alive in a world that demands constant output. Moderated by: Leda Galanou, film
critic (Flix.gr)

VICKY KRIEPS
Silence
Multiple award-winning actress Vicky Krieps —Best Actress at Cannes and at
the European Film Awards for Corsage— invites us into the quiet spaces
where she has always felt most at home.
"As a young film enthusiast and later young acting student I always felt more
drawn to the furniture, the landscape, the animals, the sky & the light rather
than the actor, the dialogue or the performance and I always wondered why.
Like in 'La Belle et la Bête' from Cocteau; the most intriguing thing to me were
the moving hands in the wall. And then I realised: it was because they were
silent. Because something was able to travel, something was conveyed in this
space where we (the people) forget what it is about, where it is happening or
why. Quietly watching from the sidelines."

Venue
Onassis Stegi
107 Syngrou Avenue, Athens

Admission
Free admission with advance registration:
https://tickets.onassis.org/en/Organizer/sgt/Portal

Both masterclasses will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation
into Greek.