RUMEN PETKOV

Rumen Petkov is a cartoon and animation
artist and director, born in Sofia in 1948. He
graduated from Sofia Art School in 1967. He
is one of the major comic book artists of the
comics magazine „Rainbow“. In the autumn
of 1969, he started working at „Boyana“
Cinema center as an animator.
At that time Animation Film Studio “Sofia”
did not exist.
He makes his debut as a director with the
film “Miss Island” (1973). As an animator,
director and art director Rumen has made
a myriad of films, many of which received
awards at international animation festivals
such as at the one in Ottawa, Canada. The
award, which Rumen values the most however,
remains the “Palm d’Or” he received at
the film festival in Cannes in 1984, for the
film “Marriage”, completed in collaboration
with Slav Bakalov.
Rumen Petkov created the first Bulgarian
animated feature film “Treasure Planet”
(1982). Rumen also directed the TV series
„The Adventures of Choko the Stork and
Boko the Frog“, popular in Bulgaria the ‘70s
and the ‘80s. He continues to direct films
in Bulgaria up until 1990 – the year when
Animation Film Studio “Sofia” ceases to
exist. Seeing no other option for a future in
the field of animation in Bulgaria, Rumen
Petkov leaves Bulgaria for Los Angeles with
his family. He starts to work as an animator
at a small
studio called “Animation Cottage”.
In recent years, Rumen has worked as a
writer, storyboard artist and director of
numerous episodes of TV series, such as
“Tom and Jerry,” “Johnny Bravo”, “Dexter’s
Laboratory,” “Cow and Chicken” and others.
Since 1998, alongside his work on animation
projects, he teaches Direction in animation
at the CALARTS Institute in California.