Kostas Andritsos(1916-1994)

Kostas Andritsos was a Greek film director. He was born in Athens, where he grew up. He studied Decorative and Design arts, while at the same time he studied Theater and Literature at the School of Kostis Velmyras. In 1943 he started working in film, initially as an assistant director to Giorgos Tzavellas in the film Heirokrotimata (1944). In 1945, alongside Orfeas Karavias and Giorgos Kriadis, he founded the Film Studies Academy, which was the first school for film studies in Greece and its graduates were directors such as Vasilis Georgiadis, Grigoris Grigoriou and Filippos Fylaktos. Andritsos made his directorial debut with the film Zaira (1952) (1952), while in 1962 he got involved in film production, founding alongside Kostas Tzorbatzidis, the production company Foinix Film with notable films such as: Koroido gabre (1962) (1962), 7 meres psemata (1963) (1963), To katharma (1963) (1963), Vromiki polis (1965) (1965) and O tetraperatos (1966) (1966). Kostas Andritsos was married with Ismini Kokkinou and they had two children, Alexis and Tzela. He was a member of the National Resistance and was an active member of the National Liberation Front during World War II, while later he was a left-wing member of PASOK, with great trade union activity. He was the representative of Greece in several international film festivals and during the period 1983-1989 he was the director of the film department of the Ministry of Press. Andritsos died at the age of 78 on October 10, 1994.