site.btaFilm Director Theodore Ushev: Oscar Nomination Limited My Freedom

Bulgarian animator and film director Teodore Ushev spoke about his life abroad, his films, his Oscar nomination for the film Blind Vaysha and creative freedom to his compatriots in Brussels. He participated in a conversation with Bulgarians in the Belgian capital. Before the beginning of the discussion, the documentary Theodore Ushev: Unseen Connections, a Bulgarian-Canadian production from 2022, was screened in the lounge of the Bulgarian embassy.

“Everyone finds their place where they feel most free and where they have some weight… We all have different notions of freedom, based on what we value and what we want to do in life… What Canada gave me was the absolute freedom to develop creatively, which for me was and continues to be the most important thing," Ushev said.

“Success limits my freedom. The thing that most limited my freedom and what I do was my Oscar nomination. That was a very difficult moment because from that point on I was expected to make a certain kind of film, to be liked in the Academy," he shared with the audience.

Ushev said that he is currently working on two animated films that have nothing to do with what he has done so far, and added that he is currently living in France.

The author's meeting with the audience was part of the Bulgarian cultural festival in Belgium, organized by the Diogenes Cultural Association in partnership with the Bulgarian Embassy in Brussels.

The meetings with Ushev in Brussels continue on Monday with a screening of his film Phi 1.618.