Nikos Koundouros was born in Crete in 1926. He was exiled for four years due to his political beliefs. Returning from exile, Koundouros studied painting and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts of Athens from where he graduated in 1948. At the age of 28 he decided to follow a career in cinematography. In 1954 he starts filming his first film Magic City. Throughout his carrier Koundouros has participated in many domestic and international film festivals, receiving many distinctions with most notable the Best Direction Award in both Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival for the film Young Aphrodites in 1963. Copies of his films are held in the European Museum of Cinema, the French Film Archive and the Metropolitan Museum of New York. His last movie was The Photographers in 1998 and since then he directs classical Greek plays. In 2004 Nikos Koundouros was elected honorary doctorate of the University of Athens.