Onassis Masterclasses

Last season, Wim Wenders explored the affinities running through his filmography. Mariano Pensotti asked us to go out into the streets around the Onassis Stegi, observe passersby like detectives and invent their stories. Yorgos Lanthimos offered the audience a sweeping and revealing reflection on his cinematic journey in a packed auditorium, as part of his first photography exhibition. Yannis Economides revealed the directing tricks behind "Broken Vein". And Tilda Swinton urged us to become friends with chaos, reading her entire personal manifesto aloud.

These are just some of the moments from last year’s “Onassis Masterclasses,” which will be available this autumn on the Onassis YouTube Channel.

In the new season, the masterclasses return live to the Onassis Stegi with new guests. Romain Gavras, the enfant terrible of cinema, opens the series with a conversation about working on sets with iconic actors, his filmmaking experiences, and the punk energy that runs through his filmography. Łukasz Twarkowski follows with a workshop in Greece for the first time on his radical stage language and how he combines theatre, cinema, and new technologies.

In November, three emerging European filmmakers, Louise Chevillotte, Sergio Oksman, and Emilie Aussel, share the intense emotions of making a first feature film, as part of the ArteKino Festival in Athens.

The new year begins with "Study in Black", the masterclass by visual artist and calligrapher Maria Genitsariou, on Sunday, January 17, just before Blue Monday, the day widely known as the most melancholic of the year. Inks, pigments, brushes, and papers from Europe and Japan become both the starting point and the field of exploration. From February to May, masterclasses, workshops, inspirational talks, and other parallel activities follow with the season’s remaining guest artists, from (LA)HORDE and Romeo Castellucci to Dimitris Papaioannou, and from Christos Papadopoulos to Nikos Karathanos and Yiannis Niarros.

With free admission on a first-come, first-served basis for students of related disciplines, the “Onassis Masterclasses” become spaces for encounter, inspiration, and exchange, turning the creative process into a shared experience.