Ivailo Simidchiev

Since he finished his MFA Degree in Film and TV Directing in 1997 from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, Ivaylo Simidchiev has continuously been working as a filmmaker and film educator. His film production skills have been furnished through elaborate work on a variety of sophisticated creative projects, both fiction and documentary, while his experience spans several countries such as the USA, Bulgaria, Finland, and Canada. His expertise encompasses Directing, Writing, Producing, Editing, Cinematography and Sound Design, featuring full technological, aesthetic and managing expertise in all major aspects of film/video production.

His films have been showcased at countless renowned film forums on four continents and have won a sustained international acclaim at numerous professional venues across the globe - including Cannes Film Festival's official selection. They have been crowned with multiple awards, earning their author recognition as a professional authority on film. Ivaylo has also intensively practiced in film teaching and theatrical directing.

A special type of social sensitivity has often been attributed to all of his work, revealed through the critical exploration of a spectrum of hard topics like drug-addictions, disabilities, old age, minority problems, suicide. Since 2009 he has been mostly teaching a wide range of practical and theoretical film disciplines at the college and university level, from Directing, Screenwriting and Producing, to Digital Film and Video Production, Videography, Digital Cinematography and Non-Linear Editing, to Film Studies, History of Motion Media and Trends of Film Expression.