Did Michel Dimopoulos pass away?

Michel Dimopoulos of Thessaloniki International Film Festival has passed away sadly. He died on Thursday, April 20, 2023. His cause of death was not announced but it was disclosed that he died at the age of 74.

He served as Thessaloniki’s artistic director for 14 years; from 1991 to 2005. He also served as a member of the Camera d’Or Jury at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

“Michel had always been on the side of the Festival and its people. He was an ardent film lover and a passionate supporter of independent European cinema. He will live on in Olympion’s corridors, in the Port, inside the movie theatres, tireless and with a smile on his face, soulfully speaking for the films he loved, expanding our horizons and introducing us to the pioneering and restless cinema of the new era,” a statement by the organization reads.

Born in Paris in 1949,  Dimopoulous studied cinema in France and started his career as a film critic in Avgi, a publication located in Athens, Greece.