He graduated from the Sofia National Higher School of Fine Arts and received his M.A. from the London Royal College of Art. After a period of documentary film studies in New York he became both as visual artist and filmmaker. He shot and produced his first documentaries and shorts: in 2001 - Lemon is Lemon, in 2002 - 3001, in 2004 - Un Peu Moins and in 2005 - Invisible. In the same year he established his first US based company, while three video installations marked his carrier (Quintet without Borders, 2007,Crash and Burning Ghats, 2008).
Bojanov found international success with his first feature Ave (2011) which he co-wrotewith Arnold Barkus, directed, and co-produced through his company KBFilms with Bulgarian Camera, BNT and French scriptwriter/producer Geoffroy Grison.
The bitter-sweet hitchhiking story of two young people crossing post-communist Bulgaria took part in 60 festivals and received nineteen prizes and over twenty nominations. It has been commercially distributed in France, Switzerland and Poland and sold to HBO Latin America and TV channels in France, Turkey, UK and Switzerland.
“I am a nomad, dividing myself between New York, Bulgaria, Europe and North Africa,” Bojanov said. “Journeys and roads have always been very liberating to me.” He insists on preferring “borderline” characters similar to those in Jerry Schatzberg’s and Bob Rafelson’s films.
In 2013 along with French Kinoelektron, Russian CTB Film Company and Derk-Jan Warrink from the Netherlands Bojanov participated in Marussia by Paris based Romanian director Eva Pervolovici. Depicting the life of an emigree single mother and her six year old daughter in Paris, the film competed in the 63rd Berlinale Generation KPlus program.
Currently Bojanov dreams of raising the estimated 1.4m EUR budget of his next film Blinded by the Sun. As the director of his second feature, he is interested in the fate of a Turkish immigrant in London ripped from his natural roots. “In many ways Blinded by the Sun is a deeply personal project; the story encompasses many themes I am deeply connected to, notions that have plagued me for most of my life and places, which my nomadic life has linked me to,” Bojanov said. As a producer he wishes to continue his cooperation with Kinoelektron and to attract British and Turkish partners.
Another major fiction project developed by Bojanov as producer/director is The Living Room in Africa based on Bathsheba Doran’s play of the same name in which the main characters are split between London and Nairobi.
The documentary project Other Lives based on Nine Lives by William Dalrymple is a new challenge, this time related to India and to the “desire to transcend ordinary existence”.
Bojanov considers himself capable of operating projects with global content, because “he has produced every single film of his - from his experimental short films and videos in the 90's, to his last feature Ave.” His biggest surprise about producing is the discovery that “films could exceed being just dreams and sometimes could become reality.”
After years working outside Bulgaria, Bojanov intends to produce his new projects through his Sofia based Argentum Lux Films, he founded this year. Therefore his advice to beginners in film production: “If you can live without it, don't produce the film,” sounds more a friendly joke.
production company
Argentum Lux Films
Sintchets 10, Office #2
Sofia 1164, Bulgaria
BG cell: +359 88 6785534
US cell: +1 646 479 9345
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