BIO
Filmmaker
Sylvia Nicolaides is a filmmaker and a visual artist. She is a Berlinale Talents and Talents Sarajevo alumna (Berlin 2019, Sarajevo 2020/2021), a member of the Directors Guild of Cyprus and one of the directors of the Paphos International Film Festival in Cyprus. She is a member of the Director’s Guild of Cyprus since 2014, and a member of the board of directors from 2019-2021. In 2022, she received a research fellowship from the Institute of Contemporary Arts Kyoto and from the Japan Foundation, and traveled to Japan for her new documentary.
She received her Bachelor’s Fine Arts Degree from Chelsea College of Art and Design (University of the Arts) in London and her Master’s Degree in Audio-Visual Studies in the Film and Television Academy (FAMU) in Prague, Czech Republic.
Her films has been screened in several international film festivals like Raindance, PÖFF, In The Palace among others, and awarded with the Best Cinematography Award at the International Short Film Festival of Cyprus in 2020, the Jury’s Award at the 33rd Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival in Egypt in 2917, and at the 3D Korea Film Festival in Seoul in 2014 among others. Her documentary ‘Soma & Lil’ which was in collaboration with the European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 in Denmark, has been presented and competed in more than 20 international film festivals and has been awarded with two Best Film Awards and one Audience Award.
In 2017 she was invited as a guest artist/filmmaker at the European Film College in Ebeltoft Denmark, where she worked with the students in the production of a major project during their Art Week.
She has collaborated with the European Capital of Culture Pafos 2017 in Cyprus, through which she has curated a photography exhibition titled ‘The Alien Trail’ with photographers from the Magnum Photo Agency and directed a short documentary with the same title.
As a video artist she participated in several group art exhibitions and art residencies both in Cyprus and abroad. In 2013 she participated in the exhibition ‘Catharsis/Rebirth’ in Paphos, Cyprus and co-directed a short film presentation from it, which was selected and presented in the Louvre Museum in Paris as part of the Michelangelo Pistoletto’s exhibition ‘Annee Un – Le Paradis Sur Terre’.
Her 3D video art ‘Airground’ had been presented in more than 10 3D film festivals and 3D conferences and has been presented as a 3D art installation at the CURRECTS Santa Fe International New Media Festival in New Mexico. It is part of the permanent collection of the State Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cyprus.
