User:Stav Sydney/sandbox

Kosta Nikas
14.00

KOSTA NIKAS (b. Konstantin Nikas, Sydney Australia) is a writer, producer and filmmaker.

In 2015 Kosta Nikas made his feature film directorial debut with the psychological drama Sacred Heart [1] starring AFI award winning actor David Field.

Early Career Kosta Nikas worked as a journalist and communications professional for more than 15 years with a presence in community arts and theatre for just as long, before embarking on a filmmaking career.

Notable professional and arts related credits include: Producer of Australia’s first ever Byzantine music album (1999) entitled “Byzantium” [2] performed by the Australian Byzantine Choir and distributed then by Festival Records; Publisher and Editor of the ”Employment Post” [3]newspaper at the age of 29, which later became the first Australian newspaper [4] to go online, making it effectively the country’s first job’s classifieds website; and Editor of Australia’s first and largest selling internet magazine [5], “Internet Australasia”;  the pioneering voice of the internet in the country.

Film/TV/Theatre

In 2010 Nikas wrote and directed the highly acclaimed short film LIGHT [6] which took out the Best Experimental film award [7] at the Academy Accredited Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. It was chosen as the winner in its category by a distinguished jury [8] which included Liev Schreiber and Stephen Lang. European rights were acquired by German distributor TV Alliance GmbH which included it in its “Best Short Films of the World programme” [9] in 2013.

In 2011, he was appointed dialogue coach and screenplay translator on the award winning ABC TV series “The Slap” [10][11] starring Jonathan LaPaglia, Lex Marinos and Alex Dimitriades.

He then went on to write and direct the 30-minute social drama Mother's Day (2012) [12] featuring television icon and fellow Greek-Australian Lex Marinos OAM, followed by the indigenous parody Boat People [13] which was acquired by SBS television.

His first two plays “Café of Dreams”[14] and “Confessions to an Angel” [15] were produced by and performed for the Greek Festival of Sydney. His third play, Proxy [16] was produced by Liber Theatrum in 2010, directed by NIDA directing graduate Subra Velayutham Directed by Subra Velayuthamand was performed at Sidetrack Theatre as an umbrella event of the Greek Festival of Sydney.

Education

Kosta Nikas holds a Masters of Interactive and Digital Media from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Communications majoring in journalism, public relations and literature from the University of Western Sydney.

Notes / References

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4771568 [2] http://www.australianbyzantinechoir.com/Archive.html [2]http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33296503?selectedversion=NBD23445822 [2] http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rhythmdivine/byzantine-chant-on-the-holy-mountain/3270362

[3] Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 24, 1994 page 170 [4] Canberra Times,, Crispin Hull, Page 17, April 3, 1995, ) and SMH source if we can find it [5] http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/29765357?q=internet+Australasia+magazine&c=article&versionId=38517226+44990717 (also see refer to/click thru to image supplied) [5] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4473277/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm [6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1941587 [7] http://lashortsfest.com/2011/content.asp?PageID=2 [8] http://lashortsfest.com/2011/content.asp?PageID=31[9] http://www.tvalliance.at/tv-alliance-launches-new-television-series-featuring-the-best-short-films-of-the-world-salzburgmunich-ots/ [10] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4473277/ [11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1823011 [12] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2246242[13] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3334774 [14] Referenced in page 23, Kosmos Newspaper, Wednesday 22 June 2011 [15] Daily Telegraph (see pic)  page 29, Thursday March 18, 1993 [16] http://www.greekfestivalofsydney.com.au/festival10/events/event_proxy.htm