Lena Tsodykovskaya

Russian native Lena Tsodykovskaya is a Los Angeles based film, television and commercial director keen on exploring dark stories driven by unique and complex characters. Inspired by the works of filmmakers like David Fincher and Asghar Farhadi and the writing of Dostoyevsky, Lena aims to build an emotional bridge between the audience and the uncommon characters she portrays on screen, while keeping stories grounded, emotional and genre-driven. Starting off as a photographer for MTV Russia and working as a director's assistant on national television, Lena worked her way up to directing episodes of a popular science-based television series. Shortly after, she moved to the US to attend Columbia University where she received her MFA in Directing. There, her short films played at multiple festivals worldwide and her thesis film "Mother's Day" was nominated for an HBO Production Grant. Parallel to narrative work, Lena has built a career directing for advertising and has worked with a long list of respectable global agencies and clients, including but not limited to McDonalds, Samsung, Ives Saint Laurent, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Nissan, BBDO, Mullenlowe, TBWA and DDB. Her US debut in advertising gained her the ASCAP Best Collaboration with Musicians Award. Lena's most recent film, comedy "Luisa and Anna's First Fight," premiered on Short of the Week, won "Best Director" award at The Film Zone Short Film Festival and was showcased on multiple digital blogs including Director's Notes, Girls in Film and BooooomTV. She was hired to direct a digital series for horror company CryptTV, founded by Eli Roth and backed by Jason Blum, which has gained 2 million views to date. She recently wrapped on a 10x10 series for FacebookWatch titled "Stereoscope" which premieres globally on August 21st. At the moment, Lena is preparing for her first feature film "Bitsy" and is in development of a limited series titled "Seabird."