Julian Iliev received his Bachelor of Film Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. He has directed twenty short films that have been screened at international festivals and have won multiple awards. His film 2 Yahoos and a Bottle of Rum was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.

His latest short animation film, A Cloud Holding a Knife, was screened at forty festivals; it won two awards for Best Short Film and was a finalist at four additional festivals. Julian Iliev’s first feature film, Night of Deception, was released in 2026 and is currently in the festival circuit.