{"id":4025,"date":"2026-07-11T23:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T23:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4025"},"modified":"2026-07-11T23:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T23:06:21","slug":"greek-filmmaker-christos-nikou-the-director-of-apples-and-fingernails-on-creating-tender-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4025","title":{"rendered":"Greek Filmmaker Christos Nikou, the Director of \u2018Apples\u2019 and \u2018Fingernails,\u2019 on Creating \u2018Tender Cinema\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tAt Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week, the 10 participants of Future Frames \u2013 the program for young European directors \u2013 were joined by Greek director Christos Nikou as their mentor. Variety<\/em> sat in on their discussion.<\/p>\n

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\n\tNikou, who directed \u201cApples\u201d and \u201cFingernails,\u201d started by underscoring the importance for filmmakers of \u201cfinding their voice.\u201d He said, \u201cThe best compliment I have ever heard about the things I\u2019m doing is that they have a very unique tone and identity. It\u2019s not what I\u2019m trying to do, but it\u2019s what somehow comes from my heart, my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow can you find your voice?\u201d he asked, adding that he feels \u201cthat a lot of filmmakers are trying to follow what the film funds need, and also what the festivals need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cI never call myself a director, I call myself a cinephile, and the reason why I\u2019m doing this is because I love watching films.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNikou, who likes to watch three movies a day, said that even if he doesn\u2019t know who the director of a film is before watching it, he\u2019ll know in the first five to 10 minutes, and loves to discover \u201creally unique voices, and unique identities.\u201d He added, \u201cThat\u2019s our goal: to create unique voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said \u201cApples\u201d had been rejected by funds and festival workshops in several countries as they didn\u2019t understand the tone of the film. \u201cIt\u2019s a movie that is subtle. They could understand the idea, but the tone, it\u2019s very difficult to describe it in the script, so sometimes you need you need to make a short film first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe noted that while young filmmakers often told him they their favorite directors were people like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, what they pitched was more like \u201cpoverty porn,\u201d which he said he found \u201cso, so, so boring.\u201d He continued, \u201cI mean, come on, we can tell more interesting stories. We can tell stories that are not only about what we see, but also about what we love. So, for me, it\u2019s very important that a filmmaker is doing films that are very close to their heart and what exactly they love watching in films.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNikou didn\u2019t attend film school and is self-taught. His three favorite filmmakers were also self-taught, \u201cso, I said, if they can do it, I can do it also. My school was the movies that I was watching.\u201d He says that although his film taste ranges from \u201cThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie\u201d to \u201cThe Lovers on the Bridge,\u201d the film that made him want to be a filmmaker was \u201cThe Truman Show,\u201d which is \u201cthe movie that I feel has the perfect balance between comedy and drama, and how you can make something that is conceptual but also really grounded, and it\u2019s an amazing prophecy about our life. I mean, it still works perfectly, and it\u2019s a film that I really love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNikou added that in the last 15-20 years, cinema has suffered from a lack of originality. \u201cThe reason is that all these stupid executives think that they know what they\u2019re doing, but actually they have no idea, and they\u2019re just trying to play it safe. And the thing is, we don\u2019t have to listen to them; we have to keep what we have in our heart, and that\u2019s the most tricky thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cThey always put you in boxes. When I did \u2018Apples,\u2019 I signed with a manager in the U.S., and then an agency, and the first scripts I was receiving were about memory, and I was like, \u2018What the fuck? I did already a movie about memory, I don\u2019t want to do another one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNikou underscored the primacy of the audience. \u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of filmmakers who are doing stuff that is for them and their friends, and they are so self-centered. I feel that you need to think about the audience, and put yourself in the position of the audience. You have to have yourself as a filmmaker and yourself as audience, and to combine these two.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThere are filmmakers that they just want to challenge the audience and to feel very provocative, but to be honest, what I\u2019m missing with cinema is tender cinema, and cinema that comes from the heart. It\u2019s the easiest thing in the world to provoke. The thing is to work out how you can make something that is authentic and tender, and avoid all this pretentious stuff that is happening in cinema a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cFingernails,\u201d which was picked up by Apple TV, Nikou had final cut. He recommended the young filmmakers fight for that too, while acknowledging it was rare to be granted that, especially for projects shot for U.S. studios and streamers.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cApples,\u201d Nikou worked on a budget of just $250,000, but for \u201cFingernails,\u201d he had $10 million-$12 million. The additional costs associated with abiding by union rules in North America, mean that the money goes further in Europe, he commented. \u201cIn Europe, we\u2019re doing the films in a much more efficient way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn \u2018Fingernails,\u2019 for example, there were scenes where we had three makeup artists and three hairstylists for two people in a house, and they were just sitting there. We had 120 people in the crew, 10 people in the grip, 10 people in the electric, lighting, and you were thinking, \u2018What the fuck, all these people, why are they here?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s the union rules that you have to follow there. So, the problem is that a lot of the money is not going on the screen [in the U.S.], and that\u2019s a good thing about Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMoving focus from Greece to North America was made easier for Nikou, prior to the premiere of \u201cApples,\u201d after he signed with manager Jerome Duboz, with CAA as his agency, and with Cate Blanchett as an executive producer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you have an agent and a manager, and all these things are happening, they\u2019re always arranging meetings for you with producers in the U.S., they\u2019re asking you what you want to do next, you have a lot of Zoom meetings, you\u2019re meeting people in person, you\u2019re hearing a lot of things that you don\u2019t believe, but at the same time you are trying to figure out how to stay true to your vision, how you want to tell a story, and who are the people that you can make your family somehow and continue working with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNikou confessed that he was no fan of film awards, although the prizemoney he earned from awards for \u201cApples\u201d had allowed him to continue as a filmmaker. \u201cI think that there is nothing more stupid than awards. It doesn\u2019t make sense that we\u2019re competing with each other in a way, because we all love films. The first awards I started getting were making me feel very uncomfortable and not happy in a way, because I was trying to realize if my ego is happy, or why they\u2019re giving me an award right now, and why they chose it. I have been many times in juries, and juries don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing most of the times, they\u2019re going to parties until late, and they\u2019re watching movies very early, and half of them are sleeping during the screenings.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMany times, they\u2019re coming with an agenda about where they want to give the award to, so it\u2019s very tricky to be honest. There are some people that really decide with their heart, but there are also some people that don\u2019t decide with that, so please don\u2019t be sad if you ever lose an award. It doesn\u2019t mean anything at all. You just have to enjoy the journey. We\u2019re the luckiest fucking bastards in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Greek director Christos Nikou was the mentor for Future Frames – the program for young European directors. 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