Maria Iliou

In 1987, her first film The Encounter won a Hellenic Ministry of Culture Award. In 1991, she founded the A CITY-SHIP (MIA POLI-PLIO) production company. Her second feature film Seaward Window (1992) won an Istituto Luce Award in Italy in 1993. In 1996 her film Three Seasons won awards at the 37th Thessaloniki Film Festival and at the Würzburg International Film Festival in (Germany).[3]

Her feature Alexandria, a Love Story (2001)[4] tells the story of a mother and daughter who, on a trip to Egypt, rediscover each other through a tale about an old Alexandrian love story of the mother's. Alexandria, a Love Story won a Hellenic Ministry of Culture award as well as awards at the international film festivals of São Paulo in Brazil, Gran Canaria in Spain and Houston in the USA,[5] while film historian Professor Karalis called it one of the best Greek films of the 2000 decade in the history of Greek cinema.[6]

In 2003 in New York while researching archives within the framework of the script development for her feature film A Friendship in Smyrna, during the period of her Fulbright scholarship,[7] she discovered forgotten visual material on Smyrna as well as on the migration of the Greeks to America. The material was so fascinating that it led her, instead of a feature film, to make a documentary while at the same time salvaging the forgotten visual material. In 2005 she founded the non-profit company PROTEUS NY INC & PROTEAS whose purpose it is to discover and preserve audiovisual archival material related to Greek history, chiefly in America and Europe.[8][9] In collaboration with other cultural organizations it produces films, exhibitions and books that make these lost images accessible to the public.

From 2007 to the present day the company has presented historical documentaries that met with great success. The Journey: The Greek American Dream,[10] a documentary on the immigration of the Greeks to America, was presented at the Benaki Museum in Greece and was later screened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art[11] and on PBS in Chicago. It also won an award from the American Film Institute in Washington as one of the best films of the year. (The European Showcase).[12] The following year she was honored for her work by the city of New York.[13]

In 2012 she presented the historical documentary Smyrna, The Destruction of a Cosmopolitan City, 1900–1922, a documentary that brings to the people lost images of cosmopolitan Smyrna,[14] collected from over 20 American and European archives but also a new perspective on the history of the city. After its screening at the Benaki Museum,[15][16] the documentary was screened in movie theaters in Greece and America as well as on Greek television (a total of over 250,000 viewers). The screenings subsequently continued in European and American cities while it had a run of over three weeks at the Quad Cinema in New York.[17][18] With the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation the documentary was also screened at 22 universities in the United States and Canada.

It was followed by the historical documentary From Both Sides of the Aegean, on the population exchange between Greece and Turkey (1922–1924).[19][20][21][22] Her principal collaborator on all three of these films was the historical consultant Alexander Kitroeff (Haverford College).[23]

In 2017 she presented the documentary Dear Aunt Lena,[24][25] on the life and work of the educator Antigone Metaxa with whom many generations of Greeks grew up, tuning in to her radio programs and reading her books. This was a very personal film since Aunt Lena was Iliou's grandmother. Iliou is in the preparation stages for a documentary series on the history of modern Athens from 1821 to our days entitled Athens Rising.