Javor Gardev

Javor Gardev (born 1972, Sofia) holds a MPhil degree in Philosophy from Sofia University, and a M.F.A. in Directing from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. One of the foremost directors of his native Bulgaria, he has staged over forty-five performances, in his home country and abroad, which were presented in Sofia, Berlin, Paris, Lille, Bern, Gdansk, Moscow, St.Petersburg, Lisbon, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, to name a few. Among the plays he has staged are: William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "King Lear", Edward Albee's "The Play about the Baby" and "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" (personally endorsed by Mr. Albee), Heiner Müller's "Quartet', Jean Genet's "The Maids", Peter Weiss's "Marat/Sade", Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" and "A Behanding in Spokane", Tracy Letts's "Killer Joe", Ethan Coen's "Almost an Evening". His feature film debut Zift (2008) won nineteen domestic and international awards and special mentions. Javor Gardev won "Silver St. George" for Best Director in Main Competition at the 30th Moscow IFF. Zift (2008) was part of the selections of fifty-four different International Film Festivals including Toronto IFF, 2008 (Official Selection, Discovery). It was Bulgaria's official submission for the 2008 'Best Foreign Language Picture' Academy Award category and part of the Official Selection for the European Film Academy Awards, 2008. Until 2009 it was the highest grossing Bulgarian Feature film for the last two decades. Since 2009 Javor Gardev is a member of the European Film Academy. Javor Gardev's works, even those with a deceptively simple set-up, invariably possess a multi-layered reflectiveness. His artistic language is unconventional and continuously innovative. Besides his prolific theatre work, Javor Gardev has directed radio-dramas and authored performance art and video art works.