Andrea Gatopoulos

He is a film producer, director and distributor. He was born in Pescara (Abruzzo, Italy) in currently lives in Rome, where he graduated cum laude in 2016 in Modern Literature with the thesis "Virtual reality and image culture in the civilization of entertainment". He founded the production company called Il Varco and produced 22 short films, 4 feature films and the edition of 7 books. He's the artistic director of Il Varco - International Short Film Festival, Italy. He also founded the Short Days in Rome and the Abruzzi's film screening "New Abruzzi Cinema" in Pescara and the film distribution Gargantua Film. His film productions were featured in more than 150 festivals all around the world including Cannes Quinzaine, Locarno, Venice SIC@SIC, Camerimage, Rotterdam IFFR, In the Palace, Drama, Cyprus, Rome Film Festival. As a director, he shot "Onyricon" in 2015, "Spettri" in 2017, "Materia Celeste" in 2019 and "Polepole" in 2021. In 2020 he worked alongside Werner Herzog for his film Accelerator in Leticia, Colombia, in which he developed the filmed correspondence "Letters to Herzog" and the short film "Flores del precipicio". He was among the finalists of Premio Zavattini 2021/2022. His short film "Happy New Year, Jim" premiered at Cannes Film Festival during the 54. Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. In 2023, he was chosen to participate in Locarno Spring Academy with Radu Jude where he shot "Eschaton Ad", that premiered in Locarno that same year. In August 2023, he participated to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Creator's Lab in Yucatan, Mexico. In November 2023, his debut feature documentary "A Stranger Quest" was presented at the 41. Turin Film Festival. He was invited to be part of Berlinale Talents in 2024 and he is a voting member of EFA - European Film Academy as since 2024.