Teymur Hajiyev was born in Baku and graduated with a degree in economic cybernetics from the State University of Baku. He holds an MBA in marketing from the West Texas A&M University. Before he became a filmmaker, he worked as a marketing director for a number of companies in Azerbaijan. He has produced more than a dozen short films, including TORN by Academy Award winner Elmar Imanov. Hajiyev’s debut short fiction film THE WOUND had its premiere at ShortsFest in Palm Springs in 2013. His subsequent shorts include SHANGHAI, BAKU, which premiered at the Tampere Film Festival, and SALT, PEPPER TO TASTE, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His fourth short, TOWARDS EVENING, was the first Azerbaijani film selected for the Critics’ Week at the Festival de Cannes. Hajiyev is the only Azerbaijani filmmaker who has attended Cannes as both a director and producer.
