Documentary Filmmaker
Vania Turner is an award-winning Greek - British documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor. Her debut-feature documentary, Tack, where Turner also worked as cinematographer and editor, delves into Greece’s #MeToo movement through the stories of Olympic medalist Sofia Bekatorou and younger sailing champion Amalia Provelengiou. Inspired by Bekatorou, Provelengiou, decides to seek justice for herself –she was systematically abused by her coach between the ages of 11 and 13. As Bekatorou champions legal reforms to empower abuse victims, Provelengiou takes her abuser to court in what becomes Greece’s first #MeToo trial.
Tack premiered at the 2024 Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, winning five awards, including the FIPRESCI prize for Best Greek Film. It has since received more than 20 international film awards at festivals worldwide.
Reviewers and juries have praised Turner’s sensitive handling of her subjects, calling Tack one of the most important Greek films in recent years. One critic described it as "a courtroom thriller" that remains "deeply human," with moments that are profoundly difficult, yet captured with "sensitivity, respect, and, above all, a quiet courage.”
As a video journalist Turner covered humanitarian crises across the Middle East, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, collaborating with leading media outlets like The Guardian, BBC, and TIME Magazine and major entities like the United Nations Refugee Agency.
She has reported on the refugee crisis in Europe, the torture of Iraqi civilians at the hands of ISIS in Mosul, ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the aftermath of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, migrant crossings in the Central Mediterranean Sea during Covid, wildfires in the Mediterranean and more.
Vania produces, shoots, directs, scripts and edits her stories, but also often works as a producer, director, editor or camera person in bigger productions. In 2024, she worked as one of the cinematographers on a BBC Africa Eye investigation into the trafficking of Malawian women into domestic servitude in Oman, following an extraordinary network of women who, working across three continents, are fighting to bring them home against often impossible odds. The documentary received a Special Mention at the 2025 One World Media Awards. She is also a stringer for Reuters in Greece.
Turner’s drone footage played a crucial role in a Forensic Architecture investigation into the September 2020 fire at the Moria refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. Commissioned by the defence team of the 'Moria 6,' the investigation examined key witness testimonies and uncovered significant inconsistencies, casting doubt on the evidence that led to the wrongful convictions.
Turner was a 2024 IDFA Academy Fellow. She holds degrees in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and English Literature from the University of Warwick with First Class Honours.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Athens Law University
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - Film Department
American University of Athens - Deree
University of Crete
Hellenic Mediterranean University
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens
Harokopio University
Film School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
CONFERENCES
ATHENS, GREECE - 2025
Video-first News the Next frontier | iiMEdD International Journalism Forum 2025
ATHENS, GREECE - 2023
Women Filmmakers in Greek Cinema: Achieving 50/50? | WIFT GR
Media and Migration: A complicated reality? | Let The Children Talk Photo Exhibition
ATHENS, GREECE - 2022
How to First Steps in Journalism | iMEdD International Journalism Forum 2022
Moving Forward to Eliminate Abusive Behaviour of Adults Towards Children | 24th International Olympia Children's Film Festival
TUNIS, TUNISIA - 2019
Reporting on Refugees in the sub-Saharan African context | International Conference on Media and Refugees | Arab Institute for Human Rights
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