Award-winning Actress Vangelio Andreadaki to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at New York Greek Film Expo 2024

Vangelio Andreadaki and New York Greek Film Expo

Best known for her roles in films like The Promotion (2023), SMAC (2015), Little England (2013), and her latest, Arcadia (2024), Vangelio Andreadaki will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from Hellenic Film Society USA (HFS) at the upcoming New York Greek Film Expo. The annual Expo, presented by HFS, will take place October 3-13 in theaters in the NY Metro area. The Expo features the latest Greek films, as well as meet & greets and Q&As with visiting directors, and more. She’ll accept the award in person on opening night, October 3.

Her film, The Promotion, will be screened at three theaters during the Expo. At the screening at the Village East Cinema on Sunday, October 6, she will participate in an audience Q&A with her husband and the film’s director, Periklis Hoursoglou.

“Vangelio Andreadaki brings an unmistakable intelligence to every performance she’s given in more than 40 years,” said Maria C. Miles, HFS president. “Her immense talent and dedication have earned her the respect of her colleagues and the adoration of the public. We are proud to honor her.”

Meet Vangelio Andreadaki

Born and raised in Athens to parents from Crete, Andreadaki is fiercely proud of her Cretan roots. She said her family’s “reference point was always Crete.” Her father was born and raised there. Her mother, also of Cretan descent, grew up in Athens.

She traces her roots to the Rethymno region, where her great-great grandparents’ family, among a few others, established a village called Agios Konstantinos. The tiny village is “equidistant from both seas, the northern and the southern. It is a location filled with olive trees, vineyards, carob trees, cypresses, and oaks.”

She’s married to Director and Screenwriter Pericles Hoursoglou.

Q&A with Vangelio Andreadaki

I had the opportunity to speak with Andreadaki ahead of her appearance in New York to accept her award. She talked about how she got her start, career highlights, the New York Greek Film Expo, and more.

Maria A. Karamitsos: When did you know you wanted to become an actress?

Vangelio Andreadaki: During my second year at the Forestry School of the University of Thessaloniki. I always recalled fondly my participation in two high school plays. We had staged ‘The Courtyard of Miracles’ by Iakovos Kampanellis, who was present, and at the end of the performance, he told my mother, "Make her an actress!" I was 17 years old.

MAK: Where did you study?

VA: I took exams at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece, as I was living in Thessaloniki for university. Also very important were my three years at the ancient drama workshop of Lefteris Voyatzis in Athens. It’s an ambitious and particularly demanding workshop, whose fruit was the performance of Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’, where I played the title role.

One day, before going to the performance, I was very stressed and insecure. My mother hugged me and said, "Oh, if only I had your luck, what are you afraid of?" Now that I think about it, my mother would have wanted to become an actress, and she passed on this love for theater and cinema to me. She was always by my side.

Another significant experience was my contact with Walter Lot, a professor at the Actors Studio, who gave seminars in Europe and came to Greece for several summers, as well as my lessons at Drama Studio in London during a summer course.

MAK: Who are some of your influences?

VA: I took something from every director I’ve worked with. Plus Maria Callas, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Dimitris Mavrikios. Haruki Murakami, C.P. Cavafy, William Faulkner, Dionysios Solomos, Pantelis Voulgaris, and Dimitris Papaioannou are like beacons to me.

MAK: What was your first role?

VA: Masha from Chekhov's ‘The Seagull’ at the National Theatre of Northern Greece. My first film appearances were in the short film Study and the movie Do You Love Me? (1989).

MAK: Do you have a favorite role?

VA: Eleftheria in Eyes of Night (2003), the first leading role I had in a feature film. I was already the mother of two small boys, had many responsibilities, had theater rehearsals at the National Theatre, and the pressure of time was great. It was my first professional collaboration with Pericles, and I wanted to prove worthy of his trust. I loved the character.

MAK: You've had roles in film, TV, and theater. Do you have a preference?

VA:  I enjoy my work everywhere, but I have a special preference for cinema. It’s the here and now, the changes, the dance with the camera, the nuances that are captured.

MAK: You’ve won several awards.

VA: Twice from Drama Short Film Festival for the films Anna's Smile (1997) and Kimon and Lucy (2007). I also received an award at Cinema magazine’s Small Premieres for the film Pyramid (2007).

For Eyes of Night, I won Best Actress at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and at the Rabat Film Festival in Morocco (2004). For SMAC, I received the Iris award for Best Actress from the Hellenic Film Academy (2016), and Best Performance Award at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (2017).

MAK: Do you have any plans to write? To be on the other side of the camera?

VA: I’ve never thought about it, but I always enjoy discussing the script and the character’s journey with my directors in cinema. I often discuss Pericles' scripts with him as they take shape.

MAK: How did you get involved with New York Greek Film Expo/Hellenic Film Society?

VA: Jimmy DeMetro, (HFS co-founder), had seen Eyes of Night and expressed positive comments both for the film and for me, as well as for my participation in subsequent films, for which I am grateful.

MAK: Why is it important to showcase Greek films in the US/host a Greek film festival here?

VA: Through the filmmakers' movies, we hear the heartbeat of contemporary Greece. We see how the era we live in is absorbed and transformed, what ideas and thoughts are produced, and how the human journey is tested in the present Greek landscape. Greeks in the US want to maintain their connection with the country of their parents and grandparents. And they want to share this experience with others who love cinema. Important films are being made in Greece, and we have significant artists.

MAK: You'll receive HFS' Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York Greek Film Expo.

VA: When Maria Miles told me this, I was stunned—I never expected that. It is a great honor for me, and I don’t know who to thank first.

This is all because of the directors who trusted me over these 40 years, inviting me to share their vision for cinema. From the small stage at my school, I realized that there was a space where I could let my imagination run free, where there was a reason I was there because I had something important to convey.

I believe that we, as actors, are like messengers! I dedicate this award to the memory of my parents, who raised me with the ideals of free thought and collaboration.

MAK: You'll come to NY to receive the award.

VA: I’m thrilled that my work as an actress in Greece has led to such fortune in New York! The city of cities, the city of free thought, the city we have loved through the films of so many creators, the city that is a reference point in art!

MAK: Will this be your first time in the US?

VA: I’m very excited, this will be my first time in New York. I have been to Los Angeles.

MAK: What's next for you?

VA: I am eagerly awaiting the film Sea of Glass by Alexis Alexiou, which we shot in October 2023 in Evia and is now in the editing process. I am currently rehearsing for the play ‘Nachtland’ by Marius Von Mayenburg. And soon, a film I appear in, Murphy’s Law by Angelos Frantzis, will be released in theaters.

MAK:  Anything else you'd like to share?

VA: Cinema is a universal language. That is its great power. Cinema in Greece has its own light.

Hellenic Film Society USA

The Hellenic Film Society USA (HFS) is rooted in the belief that Greek cinema should be part of the American cultural landscape. They promote feature films, documentaries, and film shorts made by Greek filmmakers and those of Greek descent. In addition to its annual Expo, HFS partners with the prestigious Museum of the Moving Image to present ‘Always on Sunday’, a monthly Greek film series.

For tickets, schedules, and more information about New York Greek Film Expo 2024, visit www.HellenicFilmUSA.org.

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