Team
Kristina Nikolova
Director, Producer
Born in Bulgaria, Kristina grew up in a family of cinematographers. She left the country at 18 to study economics at the University of Chicago but ended up getting a BA in Film Theory instead. Kristina shot her first feature film (on film) at age 20 and worked for several years as a cinematographer on B movies in LA before going to NYU's Tisch Graduate Film program where she directed five and shot 14 award-winning shorts (Sundance, Camerimage, Full Frame Doc FF). Kristina’s directorial feature debut, Faith, Love and Whiskey, premiered at Slamdance 2012, and was nominated for Best Debut Feature by the Bulgarian Film Academy. She shot and produced her husband and collaborator Paul's first feature Touched with Fire (starring Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby, produced by Spike Lee), which premiered at SXSW 2015 and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Kristina is currently finishing her feature documentary In Hell With Ivo and shooting another feature documentary, Project CETI, about a group of scientists who are attempting to communicate with whales using AI.
Alexander Stanishev
Cinematographer
Member of Bulgarian Association of Cinematographers, European Film Academy and The Syndicate 7.
He shot the American drama “Touched with fire”, directed by Paul Dalio, produced by Kristina Nikolova, Jeremy Alter, Jason Sokoloff, executive produced by Spike Lee and starring Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby.
Тhe feature documentary “The Magic Life of V” by director Tonislav Hristov was in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival 2019, in Berlinale Generation Competition 2019 and nominated for Golden Frog for Feature Documentary at Camerimage 2019.
Alexander won the Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography at Slamdance 2012 and the Bulgarian Film Academy Award for Best Cinematography 2012 for the feature film “Faith, Love and Whiskey” by director Kristina Nikolova.
He shot 5 feature films, episodes from 9 prime time TV series, 4 feature documentaries, numerous short films, music videos and more than 300 commercials.
He was filming all around USA ( New York, LA, Sacramento, Utah, Texas, Vermont, Boston) and Europe (Finland, UK, Turkey, Greece, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Belarus, Germany, Netherlands, Montenegro, North Macedonia) for different projects.
In 2012-2015 he conducted cinematography workshops in Kemi-Tornio university of Applied Sciences in Finland.
Julian Atanassov
Cinematographer
Julian’s path began at his dad’s photo lab in the basement of their home, where he spent hours and hours washing, drying and cutting silver gelatine prints, helping out. He was also deeply connected to the mountains, part of the local junior ski team.
After school he moved from city to city ending at the Berlin Film Academy, the DFFB, where he shot his first feature.
He ‘s done several major projects ever since, working everywhere from California to Iran, taking home Sundance ‘s Grand Jury Price for his film YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS, which tells the story of a young woman sentenced to death in Iran.
His latest documentary work is with Kristina on Project CETI, exploring the language of the sperm whales in the Caribbean Sea. Julian works in features, documentaries and commercials.
He lives with his family in Berlin and Sofia.
Anastas Petkov
Editor
Anastas Petkov is a film editor whose work has premiered at numerous festivals worldwide, including the Locarno International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, South by Southwest, Seattle International Film Festival, Mostra, DOC NYC, and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
He works in both documentary and fiction films and is currently based in Paris, France.
