Network / People
Athena Xenidou
Profession:
Country:
Greece
Athena Xenidou is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and a revisiting Jury member since 2001. Athena served as President of the Director's Guild of Cyprus 2023-2025 and is a core member of the European Filmmakers Manifesto, advocating for cinema ‘s cultural sovereignty under the Cultural Exception principle, endorsed by 24 European Ministers of Culture by 2025 . Since 2023 she is the Artistic Director of Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth.
Athena studied Music and English Literature in Switzerland before earning her BA in Film from University of California, Santa Barbara and trained as a producer at AFI. She holds an MA in Politics and Media from University of Nicosia.
Her film portfolio includes award-winning shorts Saving Joy, and Insidious Invisible. In 2001 she wrote and directed Unwitnessed Memories, which received theatrical and television distribution, screened at IDFA and won Gold Jury Award at Worldfest Houston.
In Greek television, Athena directed 48 episodes across three drama series Roua Mat, What You Don’t Know and The Secret Well and reality shows Survivor 1 and 2.
Athena cowrote an animation film with Disney’s Mulan director Barry Cook currently in production, a feature film Soap & Slime and mini-series, Laskarina (Athens Film Office 2023 choice) and Domnitsa, an international coproduction.
In 2023 she co-founded Ray Talent Agency with her partner Ronan Le Du, representing global talent and creatives. Their production company, Ray Films Greece and Cyprus, focuses on producing feature films and series for international distribution.
Invincibles is the first feature film they produced, securing distribution with Netflix and global sales with Highland, receiving Best Reviewed film in Czechia 2025, 2 nominations at the Lion Awards, shortlisted to represent the Czech Republic at the Oscars and a theatrical distribution in more than 200 cinemas.
RAY is currently in preproduction of a Bollywood film titled Ishqa by Anjali Bhushan and an American romantic comedy written by Lisa Osinloye and directed by Leslie Small, both to be shot entirely in Cyprus.
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