Theo Panagopoulos
Directing
Biography
Theo Panagopoulos is a Greek-Lebanese-Palestinian filmmaker, film programmer, educator and PhD researcher based in Scotland. His creative and academic work explore themes of collective memory, displacement, fragmented identities and resistance often through anti-colonial, participatory and archival methodologies. His most recent film is a documentary essay called “The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing”, has screened in more than 150 festivals worldwide. It has own the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2025, the Best Short Film at IDFA in 2024, was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2025, has been nominated as a short film candidate for the European Film Academy 2026 as well as winning major awards in festivals such as Go Short, London Short Film Festival, Braziers, Salem, Interaction and others. It was also screened as part of SOIL exhibition at Somerset House, London between January and April 2025. He is currently developing his first feature documentary film supported by BFI Doc Society and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) with the title Before Our Diaspora. He is completing a practice-as-research PhD at the University of West of Scotland which explores decolonial methodologies and performance as counternarrative to never-befores-seen film archives of 1930s Palestine.
Known For
When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender film essay questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land.
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
Inside a block of flats, a young woman decides to act about something concerning her for a long time.
Tomorrow is a Long Time
No description available.
The Place Between Was & Will Be
After her estranged Palestinian father passes away, Linda returns to her childhood home in Glasgow, one last time. When her 10-year-old self suddenly appears, she is guided deeper into her own memories and her family's past.
The Key
A short documentary film on the attempts of a young Greek filmmaker to connect with his distant Lebanese half by discovering his mother's secret stories of the war.