Javor Gardev

Javor Gardev (born February 23, 1972) is a Bulgarian stage and film director. Javor Gardev holds a MPhil degree in philosophy from Sofia University, and MFA degree in theatre directing from the Bulgarian National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He currently works as resident stage director at The National Theatre of Bulgaria in Sofia. He has staged over fifty theatrical performances in his home country and abroad. This includes Williams Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear, Edward Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia? and The Play about the Baby (officially endorsed by Edward Albee), Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane and The Pillowman, Tracy Letts' Killer Joe, Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening, among others.

Gardev has directed radio-drama and authored performance art and video artworks. His long feature debut film Zift (2008) won nineteen domestic and international awards and special mentions. Javor Gardev won the Silver St. George for Best Director in Main Competition at the 30th Moscow IFF. Zift was part of the selections of fifty-four international film festivals including Toronto IFF, 2008 (Official Selection, Discovery). It was Bulgaria's official entry for foreign-language Oscar and part of the Official Selection for the European Film Academy Awards, 2008. Until 2009 when its domestic record was broken, it was the highest grossing Bulgarian feature film since the prior two decades.

Since 2009 Javor Gardev is a member of the European Film Academy. In 2011 he founded Compania Ecstatica.