Simona Mehandzhieva

Simona Me. is a loud, awkward Sagittarius, who grew up glued to the screen watching wacky cartoons. She would get sucked into the world of colourful 90s cartoons like ‘The Powerpuff Girls’, ‘Cow and Chicken’ and ‘Scooby Doo’. 

She is currently an independent animator based in London graduating from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Narrative Animation. Earlier this year she was awarded ‘Best New Talent’ for her first year film ‘DUO’ at the ‘BFI Future Film Festival’. The film also travelled around world to ‘Monstra’ in Lisbon, ‘AS Film Festival’ in Italy and ‘Up and Coming International Film Festival’ in Hannover.

The references in my work have been accumulated and inspired by various mythologies such as Greek and Latin, Eastern European, Norse, biblical and theological stories. Witches, shtrigas, devils dancing in the night, with a hot cauldron boiling in the middle. 

I aspire to be an animation director who not only creates stories that are a visual feast of madness, but also celebrate characters who are extravagant, sassy and loud with colour. I want to represent the misunderstood creatures of the night, the ‘weirdos’ that don’t fit, the ones that no longer will be side kicks.