Stefanos Sitaras is a 22-year old Greek filmmaker, who has been writing/directing his own projects since he was 11. He has made over 40 short films in Greece, France and the US, and has participated and/or been distinguished in a prodigious amount of international Film Festivals—including awards in Cannes, Palm Springs and the LA Short Film competition.
Sitaras was born in Athens, the only child of Dr. Nikolaos M. Sitaras and Dr. Giulietta Pavlopoulou, who exposed their son to classic cinema at the age of 6. At the age of 11 he got his first digital camera and started making amateur films with his friends. At 12, he enrolled in a summer theatre conference the next year he attended the New York Film Academy program in Paris, under director Michael Unger. There, he wrote, directed and edited three shorts in 16mm film. His final project Through the Eyes of a Child, a poetic anti-war interpretation of the Iraq war, was considered to have been the finest NYFA short in years.
Sitaras then wrote and directed his first major motion picture, the historical epic Light Blue and Orange, which opened the Athens Opening Nights Film Festival, engaging an international audience of over 2000 people, among them the Academy Award winning filmmaker Costa Gavras. The film was an immediate sensation all throughout Greece and the then 14-year old was praised by both Greek and International media. The film has won six awards, including Best Debut Filmmaker and Opening Film at the 2005 Athens Opening Nights International Film Festival. It was also an official selection in six film festivals around the world.
Sitaras enrolled in Film Editing School in Athens and, at age 15, devoted his time to making commercials, documentaries and educational videos and a feature-length documentary about an Albanian family struggling with life in Athens. During this time, he also directed over 30 short films, most of which participated and received awards in film festivals worldwide, including the Mannheim International Film Festival, the India International Film Festival, the LA Shorts Fest, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlinale Talent Campus and many more. He also made his acclaimed Silent Trilogy, three short films each made at the age of 15, 16, and 17, all black & white with no dialogue, following the adventures of a young beggar in the streets, featuring a young Mike dePapas in the lead role.
Then at 17, Sitaras went to the US to study filmmaking at Emerson College in Boston. His making short films continued ceaselessly. Apart from his work in film, he also completed his first book, a collection of psychoanalytic articles entitled One, Two, Three Plato dies; the sexual neuroses of philosophy.
Thereafter, he began going back and forth between Greece and America, making films, including his biggest-budget production to date: the historical epic Colors of the West, set in 1879 Asia Minor, produced by ERT, the national Hellenic Radio-Television network.
Sitaras became interested in music production at 19 and formed a collaboration with acclaimed Greek artist Paulos Alexiou who has since been composing for all his films. They have been working on the production of a pop/rock album heavily engrained with ethnic sounds from the East and the Balkans with Sitaras producing, playing guitar and writing lyrics.
Having recently finished his studies, Sitaras is working on short films and recently moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a Hollywood film director. His credits include over 40 short films, 10 educational videos, 5 commercials, 3 music videos, one animated film, and one feature film in the works. His work has been shown at renowned film festivals around the world, has been critically acclaimed and won countless awards, including awards for filmmaking, directing, editing, cinematography, original score and costume design.
