Most of the time we never get to meet the filmmakers who contribute to our festival. Therefore is nice to put a face to the name of Elen Nikkol, who's film 'Little Bird' can be seen during our 3rd screening session of the day. :)
The film: The animation movie "Little Bird" is about the longing for the outside world of a little girl, trapped by the fears of her mother.
The filmmaker: Elena Nikolova was born in 1990, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In her early life, Elena attended piano lessons for eight years with the intention of becoming professional pianist, but refused to continue her musical education. At the age of 14 years, she found sanctuary in drawing. Still not being an option for career, she entered a comprehensive high school in Plovdiv with science studies instead.
Elena graduated from “St. Kliment Ohridski” high school in 2009, and moved to Sofia to study “Animation cinema” at New Bulgarian University. Her debut short animation movie “Little Bird” was finished in 2016 and with it, she graduated with Bachelor degree in Animation.
At the age of 17 years, Nikolova became the creator of “Aniplay”, the only theatrical Cosplay event in Bulgaria, organizing it personally for several years. Despite being a director, Elena took part in competitions during other cosplay related events, winning several prizes such as Best female actor (Audience award) 2008 and 2011, Best group performance (Jury award) 2010 and 2011. Up to date Elena still writes scenographies and trains young people the art of acting. In 2016 she won the prestige award for the Best script.
Elena has also experienced all kinds of various job placements such as bartender in 2010 (Sofia), henna tattoo artist in 2012 (USA), professional piercing artist in 2013 (Sofia), before starting working as 2D animator for Tabtale (Game Company, Israel) in 2014. She is currently still working there as the Lead animator for the Bulgarian branch.
In 2015 was released the trailer of the first Bulgarian project for action and fantasy animation TV series, The Golden Apple (Studio Zmei, Sofia) based on Balkan mythology and culture. In her free time, Elena is working as part of the team behind it, specializing in effects animation.
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