Iakovos Panagopoulos

Dr. Iakovos Panagopoulos is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University, specializing in Film Production with a Focus on Creating Audiovisual Narratives. His work bridges the gap between practical filmmaking and academic research, combining hands-on directing and screenwriting with scholarly inquiry into Media Practice, Film Practice, and Film Studies.
His book, The Third Path in Cinema: The Academic Filmmaker Model, is the first Greek publication to explore the field of film practice research within academia.
Dr. Panagopoulos earned his Integrated Master in Audio-Visual Arts from the Ionian University, followed by an M.A. in Cinematography from Bournemouth University. In 2019, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Central Lancashire, focusing on the cinematic work of Theo Angelopoulos. His practice based dissertation, Reshaping Contemporary Greek Cinema Through a Re-evaluation of the Historical and Political Perspective of Theo Angelopoulos's Work, examined Angelopoulos’s impact on modern Greek cinema. He further expanded his research with a postdoctoral study at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences under Prof. Seferiadis, exploring Suspended Spaces of Memory: Heterotopic Historical Narratives and Contentious Politics in Contemporary Cinematic Practice.
Dr. Panagopoulos has published extensively in international journals. He is a core researcher in StoryLab (Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries) and the founder & coordinator of the Node for Film Praxis at InArts (Interactive Arts Lab), Ionian University. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Creative Media Research and holds the position of Vice-President Secretary of Research Committee 57 (Visual Sociology) at the International Sociological Association.
Beyond academia, Dr. Panagopoulos is an award-winning filmmaker, directing both fiction and documentary films. His notable works include the short films Flickering Souls Set Alight (2019) and Allimonò (2020), as well as the documentaries A Quest for Eternity (2020) and Iannis Xenakis: Music of the Universe (2023). He has also contributed as a grader for the Screenwriters Guild of Greece’s feature film competition and as a jury member at the Kalamata Documentary Short Film Festival.
Currently, he is the Head of the Student and Educational Program of the Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival. He is also an full member of the Scriptwriters Guild of Greece, the Greek Directors Guild and the Hellenic Film Academy.

Dr. Iakovos Panagopoulos' talk at TedX Ionian University entitled: "In the Quest of the Third Path" (Gr)