Yiorgos Tsangaris is a graphic designer and director of experimental animation films. He was born in Moscow in 1976, and studied Graphic Arts at The London Institute/The London College of Printing, and Animation Directing at UWE (University of West of England – Bristol School of Animation). Since 1999 he has designed many posters and publications, especially for cinema festivals and the theatre, with much critical acclaim in Cyprus and internationally.
He is the director of the Hambis Municipal Museum of Printmaking in Nicosia, and the founder and artistic director of the International Animation Festival of Cyprus ‘Views of the World’ (2002), the first of its kind in Cyprus. Through the festival, he introduced the art of animation cinema to the general public in Cyprus, at a time when this art form was all but unknown on the island.
He has taken part in several jury panels at international animation festivals, and has initiated collaborations with important animation centres and festivals around the world. In 2013 he introduced Cyprus to the UNESCO international organization for animation. In March 2021 he completed his first film, Rites of Spring, which had its world premiere at the Ottawa Festival in Canada, and was selected in the competition programmes of some of the world’s most important festivals. In October 2022 he was awarded the prize ‘My Beloved Animation’ at the International Animation Festival ‘Primanima’ in Hungary. This award recognizes an artist’s overall contribution to the art of independent animation cinema.
