Iris Close-Up: masterclass with Vicky Krieps and Anna Hints
The Hellenic Film Academy launches new international initiative Iris Close-Up, with European Film Award Winners Vicky Krieps and Anna Hints.
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 ceremony, creating opportunities for meaningful encounters between Greek and European film professionals while strengthening the international visibility of Greek filmmaking.
This year’s edition also forms part of the 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
16:30–18:00
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
18:30–20:00
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.
The 2026 Iris Awards Ceremony will take place on 17 June 2026.
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