Sofia Exarchou was born in Athens, where she received degrees in Electrical Engineering and Film Studies. She studied theatre at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and pursued post-graduate film studies in Toulouse. She has worked as an assistant director in feature films and commercials, and as a freelance director and screenwriter since 2009. She has written and directed two short films, Distance and the award-winning Mesecina. In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Screenwriter’s & Director’s Lab. Park, her first feature film, premiered at Toronto IFF and San Sebastian IFF, where it won the New Directors Award. Since then, it has participated and won awards in numerous international film festivals(Rotterdam IFF, BFI, Thessaloniki IFF-Best Actress&Best Greek Film, European Film Festival Palic-Best European Film, Greek Film Academy-Best First Feature&Best Sound Award etc). Her sophomore feature film, Animal, a production of Homemade Films, had its world premiere at the International Competition section of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival 2023, where it was awarded with the Pardo for Best Performance for Dimitra Vlagopoulou. It currently screens in theatres and festivals around the world, winning a string of awards in the Thessaloniki, Cork, Vancouver, Santiago del Compostella, Bruxelles, Les Arcs international film festivals, among others. In 2024, Animal was nominated for the LUX Audience Award by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy.
