Ari Bafalouka was born in Athens. He is an award winning director - screenwriter in Cinema, TV, and Theatre. His works have been screened and awarded in many acclaimed international film festivals, broadcasted on many TV channels and distributed in many countries. During the eighties & nineties, he was a Greek swimming champion, holding for eight successive years, national records in 50m and 100m freestyle and competed with the national team at many international championships and events. In 1995, he graduated from Athens University (Sport Sciences & Physical Education Department) and the L. Stavrakos Hellenic Film and TV School. He subsequently fulfilled the obligation of the military service for 2 years in the Greek navy and in 1997 he was shortlisted in the final 12 candidates to enter National Film & TV School in Beaconsfield. In 1998 and 1999 he studied in the UK on a Greek Film Centre scholarship, receiving an MA in Film & TV Direction and Screenwriting from the Northern Media School. Having worked as an assistant director beside a number of well-known film-makers, Ari began directing documentaries and fiction films since 1995 working with excellent crews, artists and very well known actors. In 2005 he was selected and attended the Berlinale Talent Campus. He has also taught on the “Let’s go Cinema” Hellenic educational program, the L. Stavrakos Hellenic Film and TV School, the New Hellenic Theatre and the Theatre of Changes drama schools. He has written a play, scripts for short and feature films and episodes for TV series. He is the founder, head manager and producer of the film production company “Artwave Productions” with which he has produced his feature, short films and documentaries as also TV series & commercials. The company owns cinema equipment for shootings and is also a post-production house that gives its services to the industry. Ari has also a great portfolio as still photographer and he has exhibit his photos in many Art Galleries.

FILMOGRAPHY (As Director)

FEATURE FILMS
* “Apnea” 87 min 2010 / (Greek) 35mm  (www.apnea-film.com). Produced by Artwave Productions, Supported financialy by Greek Film Centre, NOVA.
Distributed in theatres & DVD’s in United States of America, Canada, Brazil, Greece, Puerto Rico, Spain, Suiss & Cyprus.
International awards: Fipresci & Audience Award in Thessaloniki Film Festival 2010, Audience award in Los Angeles SEE FEST 2011, award for best director at London GFF, award for best actress at London GFF, Nominated for Best First Time Director, Best Cinematography, & Best Music from the Greek Film Academy, Awarded for Best Actress & Best Music & Best cinematography from Seven Art & selected for nomination for Best First Feature Film from the European film Academy.
Selected in the competition and panorama sections of many acclaimed film Festivals such as Montreal, Thessaloniki, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Bucharest, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Munich, Shanghai, Taiwan, Novi Sad, Chicago, Adana, e.t.c.
Harvard Film Society has chosen Apnea to be screened for educational purposes at the following Boston universities: Harvard, MIT, Tufts and Boston University.

SHORT FILMS
* “The treasure of Parnon” 22 min, 2006 / (Greek) HD. Produced by Artwave Productions.
* “O+” 26 min, 2004 / (Greek) 35mm. Produced by Artwave Productions.
* “See no evil” 18 min, 2001 / (Greek) 35mm. Produced by Ari Bafalouka & Fantasia Audiovisual.
* “Whirligig” 15 min, 1999 / (English) 16mm.
* “Blackout” 2 min, 1999 / (English) 16mm.
* “The River” 12 min, 1995 / (Greek) 16mm.

Those films have been awarded more that 40 prizes in international Short Film Festivals* in Spain, France, Mexico, Italy, U.S.A, Brasil, Greece, Russia, Iran, Japan, Romania, Czech Republic and other countries.

DOCUMENTARIES
* Documentaries series of 20’ min each about the “Hydroelectric works of the Greek PPC”.
* Direction of 3 documentaries for Achellos and Aliakmonas rivers, as well as one on a natural gas project at Komotene. 2003.
* “The Birth of the Greek Nation”. 3 Documentaries for ERT (National Broadcaster). Produced by Artwave Productions & Artistico. 2007.
* Documentary series for Greek islands. Direction of 4 documentaries for Rhodes, Kos, Symi, & Corfu

TV DRAMAS
* “The 10th Commandment” . TV Series. 2004-2005
10 Teledramas, 45 min each , for ALPHA TV in Greece.
Award for best TV Directing 2006 from the Annual Greek TV Awards.
* “Mystery stories” . TV Series 2006-2007
10 TV Fiction Teledrams of 45min each for ANT1 TV Channel in Greece.

THEATRE
* “Ludmila’s Voice”. Doc - Theatre. Based on the narration of Ludmila Ignatenko about Chernobyl’s chronicle. 2009 - 2011.
Nominated for Best Acting, Best Lighting & Best Scenography in Greek National Theatre Awards 2010.

COMMERCIAL WORKS
* 55 Episodes of 30min daily TV program “Making our lives better”. SKAI CHANNEL 2011.
* 8 TV Shows (“City Stars”  Produced by Filmnet Cable TV Channel) 2001.
* Music Videos for famous Greek bands & Singers 1997-2011. (Such as Loukianos Kilaidonis, Dimitris Mitropanos, Stamatis Kraounakis, Kostas Livadas, Natassa Theodoridou, Replete Brothers)
* 5 advertising spots for food companies (Snacks) 2004.
* Making of for feature film “Think it over” by Katerina Evaggelakou. 35’ 2003.
* 30min tribute to the Actress Despo Diamantidou for her award ceremony for lifetime achievement, in Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2003.
* 5 Corporate videos for companies such as Minerva, Sikaris s.a, DEH.
* 22 Video directions for theatrical represantations for acclaimed theatrical stages in Greece, such as National Theatre, Art Theatre Carolos Koun, New-Hellenic theatre, ARGO, Metaxourgeio e.t.c
* 5 Video art  pieces.

WRITING
* “There is still a heart that beats” (Theatre play).
* “El condor pasa” (Feature script – in development).
* Immortal Law (Feature script – in pre-production)
* “The River”, “Whirligig”, “See no evil”, “O+”, “The fabulous Smile of Ann Nevil”, “Hope”, “It’s not size that counts”, “5f+1=19f”, “The treasure of Parnon”
(Short scripts – All of them produced and screened).
* 10 Fiction Tele-drama scripts (All of them produced & screened).

TEACHING
* The Hellenic Film & TV School L. Stavrakos 2006-2012
Teaches the following courses: Film Direction - Film Editing - Working with actors
Since 1948 the most historic Film School in Greece.
* Theatre of Changes (Drama School of Perfoming Arts) 2001 – 2011
Teaches the course: Perfoming for the camera
* The New Hellenic Theatre & Drama School G. Armenis. 2006 – 2012
Teaches the course: Perfoming for the camera
* “Let’s go cinema” Educational Film Program for the highschools  2001 – 2005

OTHER ABILITIES
Excellent use of computers and softwares in Windows and Mac enviroment (Photoshop, Word, Excel, Pages, Final Draft etc). Excellent editing skills on Final Cut and AVID softwares. Strong technical & artistic abilities and knowledge for video and photo shooting & printing. Speaks Greek and English fluently and weakly French that are getting better day by day.

CONTACTS
info@aribafalouka.co.uk 
Skype: aris.bafaloukas