Vasil Zhivkov

Vasil Zhivkov was born on October 31, 1948 in Sofia, Bulgaraia . He graduated from State Cinema Institute in Moscow in "film directing" . Since 1974 to 1991 he has worked as a director in the Documentary Film Studios "Screen" in Sofia. He has written and directed more than 20 documentaries. Some of them were banned for "ideological reasons" and were shown of the screen after the political changes in 1989. In 1988, he was one of the founders of the Club for Glasnost and Democracy chaired by Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev. Since 1991 to 1998 he was Chief of the Bulgarian National Film Archive , and since 1998 to 2001 he was the Head of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Moscow. He is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers (1978), the Association of Bulgarian filmmakers (2005), the European Film Academy (2007). He is a winner of the Order "Cyril and Methodius". He won Special Jury Prize at the Festival in Karlovy Vary , 2006 for the movie "Christmas Tree Upside Down"; Grand Prize for young East European Cinema Film Festival in Cottbus , Germany for the movie "Christmas Tree Upside Down"; "Golden Rhyton" for Best Documentary (Plovdiv 1989) for the movie "Satisfactory Case"; Award for directorial debut and award for Best Documentary for the movie "Sheshkingrad" (1975).