Greek Australian Elena Carapetis has been shortlisted for the SALIFE South Australian Artist of the Year award, while Greek owned drink manufacturer Bickford’s Australia is up for Brand of the Year.
The SALIFE Awards celebrate South Australian food, beverages, travel, luxury and design, as well as the individuals and businesses leading the way in their fields.
The winners of each category will be announced at the Gala Awards on Wednesday December 4, at the Piccadilly Theatre.
Carapetis is an Adelaide based award-winning actress, writer, and director with a 30-year career on stage and screen.
A graduate of NIDA, she has an extensive background in performing, directing, and writing across various sectors of the arts industry.
Her play “The Gods of Strangers”, sold out during the 2018 State Theatre Company SA season and recently, she concluded the festival circuit for her debut short film “Blame the Rabbit,” which received the Grand Jury Prize at the South Australian Screen Awards.
In a previous interview with Neos Kosmos, she said artists’ work is an “indicator of a healthy and robust society,” and recognised Western theatre’s roots in ancient Greece.
Bickfords, known for its cordials, is owned by the Kotses family, who bought it in 1999.
It also produces soft drinks, juices, iced coffee and milkshake mixes.
Angelo Kotses, the managing director of Bickford’s Australia, won the 2018 Duncan Macgillivray entrepreneur prize for tradition and cutting-edge innovation in high-quality products, at the 2018 South Australian food industry awards.
Born in Aetos, Florina in 1960, Kotses and his family migrated to Australia in 1964, first to Redfern, Sydney, then Adelaide in 1976.
The Koutses family’s heritage was the driver for another new product: Matthew & Jim’s Classic Ouzo that won a silver medal at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The ouzo was named for Angelo’s grandfathers and the bottle featured a photo of them in Florina on the day Angelo was born; each grandfather with a glass of ouzo in hand.
