Draft:Slav Velkov

Slav Velkov (born 6 March 2000) is a Bulgarian director, painter, and writer. He is known for his short films, particularly A New World (2021) and Strangers (2023), which premiered at the 2023 Big Apple Film Festival and Soho International Film Festival in New York. Slav has worked on numerous other motion pictures, and, since 2015, his films and artworks have been exhibited at festivals and exhibitions worldwide.

Early life
Slav started making films and paintings early on in his life. At age 14, he was one of eight winners at the 2nd annual Nevena Kokanova Festival for Theatre and Film Arts in Bulgaria with his short narrative screenplay Who? (2015).. In 2016, Slav co-wrote and co-produced with Georgi Martev and directed his second short film, M (2017), starring Koyna Ruseva. Upon the film's release in 2017, Slav appeared on national media, including Bulgarian National Television and Bulgarian National Radio. His film tackled the themes of social media addiction and school violence amongst Bulgarian youth. In an interview on the Bulgarian National Radio, Slav said that anonymity and the lack of physical connection on digital media platforms created a feeling of impunity which, he claimed, was a contributing factor to school violence and dependence on artificial intelligence. He urged his schoolmates to think critically when using digital media

Career
In 2020, Slav co-wrote and directed the short social film, Change Bulgaria (2020), that became widely viewed on Facebook during the 2020-2021 Bulgarian protests. As a result, Slav and the cinematographer Georgi Goshev appeared on Bulgaria ON AIR television, and they urged young people to stand against the political status quo in Bulgaria. The mass of content published by Slav and many other artists, content creators, and filmmakers helped popularize the movement and contributed to the "Grand National Uprising" on 2nd September, 2020.

Slav's next project was the short documentary film, The Medal (2021), which he co-produced with artist Nadia Rozeva. The film premiered In Competition and opened the Master of Art Film Festival in 2021. The film's goal was to introduce audiences to the history and the artistic processes behind the art of medal making. Slav also took part of the Master of Art Film Festival earlier in 2019 as part of the jury.

From 2021 to 2023, Slav produced and directed a number of narrative and fine art projects that premiered worldwide. His 2021 short narrative film, A New World, starred Bulgarian actors Petko Venelinov and Boyan Mladenov and was screened at the Big Apple Film Festival and The Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image in New York City. A New World has been described as anti-modernist and absurdist in its depiction of contemporary society. Later in 2021, Slav shot his next project, Strangers (2023), about a young man's proposal to his girlfriend in New York's Chinatown. The movie was Official Selection at the 2023 Soho International Film Festival. Earlier the same year, Slav worked at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote, produced, and edited multiple videos on the entertainment and technology industries.

Concurrently with his narrative projects and work at The Wall Street Journal, Slav co-curated his senior thesis exhibition at the Ildiko Butler Gallery at Fordham University.. His thesis consisted of a 59-inch pencil and charcoal drawing, titled Zavet (2023)–the Bulgarian word for "heritage" and "testament". In an interview for The Fordham Observer, Slav described Zavet as a personal reflection on leaving his Bulgarian family, as well as a commentary on the formal deconstruction in 20th-century art. Later in 2023, Slav's narrative short film, Strangers, screened at the Big Apple Film Festival and Louisville's International Festival of Film, among others. Slav is currently working on his next short film project, which he shot in Bulgaria, New York, and New Jersey