Bard College Faculty Member Argyro Nicolaou Awarded Production Grant for Feature Film
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Argyro Nicolaou, artist in residence and visiting faculty at the Center for Human Rights and the Arts (CHRA) at Bard College, has received a Cyprus Cinema Office Development and Production Grant in support of her first feature film. The grant, in the amount of €425,000 or roughly $500,000, was bestowed by the Cyprus Cinema Advisory Committee, which provides national funding for film development and production through Cyprus’s Deputy Ministry of Culture. The funding is awarded for projects that focus on the cultural reality or history of Cyprus, with a substantial portion filmed in the country.Nicolaou’s project, Excavators, is a mystery drama that tackles themes of intergenerational memory and family relationships in a society scarred by war. The film follows its main protagonist, Klió, as she sets out to dig up the truth about her grandmother’s disappearance during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
Nicolaou is a Cypriot filmmaker and scholar based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work deals with the representation of history, displacement, and intergenerational memory in post-conflict, postcolonial societies. Nicolaou has taught film and literature courses at Bard, Columbia and Princeton, and is a member of the European Film Academy, the International Documentary Association, and the Directors Guild of Cyprus. Nicolaou has been in residence at Bard during the 2025–26 academic year coteaching the thesis seminar sequence in the MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts. Nicolaou was previously a resident fellow at CHRA in 2023–2024, developing several research projects.
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About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place and Massena properties, Bard’s campus consists of more than 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; advanced degrees through 14 graduate programs; 10 early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 166-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at the main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
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This event was last updated on 05-19-2026
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