Mitko Panov

Mitko leads the training component of our Paris film programs. He helps select instructors, coordinates the training schedule, works with the local government to approve film sites, and more.

Mitko Panov studied directing at the famed “Lodz Film School” in Poland under the mentorship of Jerzy Kawalerowycz, Wojciech Has and Andrzej Wajda. He received international awards including the Golden Palm for best short film at the Cannes FF and is recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rockefeller Fellowship for US Film and Media artists and the Sundance Film Institute Documentary Film Grant.

His films were aired on major television networks including: PBS, France 3, Canal +, Channel 4, Film 4, Arts & Entertainment, ARTE, ZDF, ARD/BR. They are featured in collections including MOMA, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Chicago Arts Institute (Video Data Bank). His latest film, “The Witness,” featuring Bruno Ganz, Marthe Keller and Padraic Delaney, is scheduled for release in spring, 2017. He is the recipient of two screenwriting awards: Hungarian Pitch Point and Krzysztof Kieslowski Award at Scripteast, Cannes.Mitko has taught and collaborated with number of award winning students including Steve Mc Queen (12 Years a Slave), John Hamburg (Meet The Parents), Joshua Marston, Malcolm Lee, David Riker, Jay Duplass, and Florian Gallenberger.

Mitko was an Assistant Professor of Film Directing at NYU, Graduate Film Program (1992-1995); a founding member of NYFA and creator of its core 8/6/4 Week curriculum (1992-1993); a Visiting Professor – Film Directing – at the German National Film-School, HFF, Munich (1995-2000); an Associate Professor at University of Texas at Austin, RTF Dpt. Graduate Thesis Projects’ Supervisor (1998 – 2008); and FIOFA Ohrid (Outlet of FAMU International – The Prague Film School Visiting Professor, 2017-2018. He also set up NYFA Paris and was its first Program Director 1998/1999.