Gorgo (Γοργώ)

2025 AACTA AWARD WINNER - Best Australian Short Film (20 mins)

Writer/Actor

Inspired by Greek ‘promised brides’ & Ovid’s Medusa myth, Gorgo is a dramatic short film that tells the story of a Greek bride’s cross-continental journey to marry a man she has never met. Matchmade by her best friend Athina, with promises of a new future in a distant land, Medousa finds herself arriving in Australia to a strange home—and a cold welcome. Thrust into her new marriage, she soon discovers a monstrous secret that threatens to tear apart the best friends’ vow of sisterhood.

Director: Veniamin Gialouris

Writer: Danielle Stamoulos

Producer: Katie Amos

Starring: Danielle Stamoulos, Ariadne Sgouros, Damien Strouthos, Jeremy Raftos

Awards
Winner Best Australian Short film - 2025 AACTA AWARD (Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts)

Winner Best Performance - Danielle Stamoulos - 2025 Stellar Short Film Festival (Australia)

Winner Special Mention - 2025 Stellar Short Film Festival (Australia)

Winner Best Direction of a Student Film - Veniamin Gialouris - Australian Directors’ Guild 2024

Winner Best Original Music in an Australian Short Film, Flickerfest 2024

Nominated, Best Achievement in Cinematography, St Kilda Film Festival 2024

Nominated, Best Achievement in Editing, St Kilda Film Festival 2024

Screenings

Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2024, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival 2024, Newport Beach Film Festival 2024, Flickerfest 2024, St Kilda Film Festival 2024, Canberra Shorts Film Festival 2024, Rencontres internationales du cinéma des Antipodes 2023, Stellar Short Film Festival 2025, New Voices in Australian Cinema (ACMI) 2025

“Stamoulos dug deep and found the courage to tell her own story. Inspired by her yiayias, or Greek grandmothers, who emigrated to Australia in the 1960s, she conceived Gorgo, the short film she wrote and starred in on graduating from AFTRS, which carries an epic emotional journey that belies its 20 minutes”

— Michael Fitzgerald (Powerhouse Museum editor & writer for Harper’s BAZAAR)