Nicholas Franghias
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Niko is a multifaceted dramatist. A screenwriter-director-producer-composer who studied film production at Britain's Croydon College, School of Art & Design. After a 6-month stint with the BBC, he worked in Greece's major advertising Agency JNL Leoussis (1989-1994) as an agency producer, copywriter, and director. Then, as a freelancer. He wrote scripts, presented to the clients, conducted pre-production meetings, supervised storyboards and voice-over sessions, briefed the composers, and directed. His collaborations are winners of the Advertising Creativity Festival in Greece, reaching the Cannes Lions Festival in France.
In film, he debuted with the short '639+1 Nights.' He followed by writing, designing, and directing the art-history documentary feature 'Made by Lysippos' on the story and the art of Alexander the Great's legendary portraitist, Lysippos. The Scientific Consultant was Dr. Paolo Moreno, Prof. Of Archaeology, University of Rome III. Awards: best script at the 'Agon' International Film Festival of Archaeological Films in Greece, and audience award at the International 'ArcheoFilmFest' in Italy. The film has been exhibited all over Europe as a unique visual approach to a historical subject. In 2016, it received screenings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
For over ten years, Niko won screenwriting and production-development awards from the Greek Film Centre (Greece's official film agency) and the Media Program of the European Union for his three high production values narrative features, including the 2008 top annual award for an outstanding upcoming writer-director. All three ambitiously authored projects unraveled, as the funding situation in Greece became steadily worse after the 2004 Athens Olympics, followed by a profoundly brutal Greek debt crisis. He started over by moving to the USA.
In 2011, at the request of Chicago's Greek Community, and with support from the Consulate General of Greece in Chicago, Franghias co-founded FilmHellenes-Greek Film Fest Chicago, a nonprofit with the mission of celebrating Greek film storytelling talent from around the world.
The festival had a prestigious collaboration with Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Centre, Pickwick Theatre, Columbia College, the National Hellenic Museum, and a sister film festival hosted by the University of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Within Franghias' three years of full-time (2011, 2012, 2013) community work as director and programmer, the festival exhibited the works of 65 filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus, and the world. Niko managed a 16-member board of directors and a plethora of volunteers.
The festival also introduced an annual Honorary Award event, honoring Academy Award-winning Director of Hellenic ancestry Alexander Payne in 2012. The honoree for 2013 was literary icon, Harry Mark Petrakis.
He has been interviewed by the National Public Radio's WBEZ, has written articles for the Greek Star (the oldest Greek American journal), and has joined the Juries of the 2012 and 2013 Toronto Greek Short Film Festival, as well as the narrative features Jury of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 San Francisco Greek Film Festival, at their invitation.
Niko became a naturalized US citizen in 2019. In July 2021, he incorporated as EmberFrames LLC, a film-project incubator co-founded with late Canadian entrepreneur Jim Pappas. Franghias lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
In film, he debuted with the short '639+1 Nights.' He followed by writing, designing, and directing the art-history documentary feature 'Made by Lysippos' on the story and the art of Alexander the Great's legendary portraitist, Lysippos. The Scientific Consultant was Dr. Paolo Moreno, Prof. Of Archaeology, University of Rome III. Awards: best script at the 'Agon' International Film Festival of Archaeological Films in Greece, and audience award at the International 'ArcheoFilmFest' in Italy. The film has been exhibited all over Europe as a unique visual approach to a historical subject. In 2016, it received screenings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
For over ten years, Niko won screenwriting and production-development awards from the Greek Film Centre (Greece's official film agency) and the Media Program of the European Union for his three high production values narrative features, including the 2008 top annual award for an outstanding upcoming writer-director. All three ambitiously authored projects unraveled, as the funding situation in Greece became steadily worse after the 2004 Athens Olympics, followed by a profoundly brutal Greek debt crisis. He started over by moving to the USA.
In 2011, at the request of Chicago's Greek Community, and with support from the Consulate General of Greece in Chicago, Franghias co-founded FilmHellenes-Greek Film Fest Chicago, a nonprofit with the mission of celebrating Greek film storytelling talent from around the world.
The festival had a prestigious collaboration with Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Centre, Pickwick Theatre, Columbia College, the National Hellenic Museum, and a sister film festival hosted by the University of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Within Franghias' three years of full-time (2011, 2012, 2013) community work as director and programmer, the festival exhibited the works of 65 filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus, and the world. Niko managed a 16-member board of directors and a plethora of volunteers.
The festival also introduced an annual Honorary Award event, honoring Academy Award-winning Director of Hellenic ancestry Alexander Payne in 2012. The honoree for 2013 was literary icon, Harry Mark Petrakis.
He has been interviewed by the National Public Radio's WBEZ, has written articles for the Greek Star (the oldest Greek American journal), and has joined the Juries of the 2012 and 2013 Toronto Greek Short Film Festival, as well as the narrative features Jury of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 San Francisco Greek Film Festival, at their invitation.
Niko became a naturalized US citizen in 2019. In July 2021, he incorporated as EmberFrames LLC, a film-project incubator co-founded with late Canadian entrepreneur Jim Pappas. Franghias lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
