Ioanna Tsoucala

Ioanna Tsoucala is a Greek cinematographer and filmmaker with a background in social sciences and audiovisual media. She began her career as a freelance photographer for newspapers and advertising agencies before transitioning into filmmaking. She works primarily in documentary films, with a focus on observational and research-based approaches to non-fiction storytelling. As an artist, she uses cinéma vérité as a research tool to bring attention to everyday individuals who are rarely represented on screen.

She has participated in international fellowships and residencies, including the American Film Showcase at USC and EuroDoc, and she has collaborated with institutions such as NEON, the Sigg Art Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Her body of work has been showcased at international venues and festivals, including Silhouette Film Festival in Paris, ICA London, the Walker Art Center in L.A, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and the Athens International Film Festival. Her debut feature, “Ladies in Waiting,” received a Special Jury Award at the 25th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

Her current practice focuses on exploring personal and collective memory through archival material. Using a large family photo archive as her primary source, she develops cinematic work that examines identity, displacement, and intergenerational silence. By incorporating AI and emerging technologies, she constructs narrative pathways that attempt to reconstruct missing fragments of history. This ongoing research evolves into a hybrid form situated between documentary and fiction.

Ioanna Tsoucala is an Onassis AiR Fellow for 2026/27.