ABOUT

Home / About

I’m Pooya Badkoobeh, a filmmaker, VFX executive, and creative entrepreneur born in Tehran in 1983 and now based in Toronto. I come from a theatrical family—my father was a well-known children’s TV director in Iran—which exposed me to the power of visual storytelling at an early age.

After studying graphic design and theatrical arts in Tehran, I earned my Master’s in Cinema from York University, where my thesis film was awarded Best Thesis Film among North American universities. Since 2003, I’ve worked at the intersection of film, advertising, and media. I co-founded Badkoobeh Advertising, led Toranj Production, and served on the board of Royay-e Talaei Shahr, focusing on impactful public and cultural campaigns.

In 2018, my first feature film, Dressage, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize in the Generation section. The film later received:
• Best Feature Film – Shanghai International Film Festival
• Best First Feature – Fajr International Film Festival
• Official selections in 18 international film festivals

I’ve also directed four award-winning short films:
• Upstairs Neighbour (2017, Tehran)
• Mars (2017, Tehran)
• Ticket to Paradise (2021, Toronto)
• Inn (Based on a True Story) (2023, Toronto/Tehran)

In Canada, I co-founded WEFX, a Toronto-based visual effects studio, where I now serve as Vice President. My recent credits include VFX Supervisor for Father Tree (2024) and Executive Producer and Actor in Torn Apart (2025).

I’m currently developing my second feature film—a mystery set in an ancestral Iranian village, exploring themes of superstition, truth, and legacy. My work continues to bridge cultures, mediums, and industries through narrative, design, and visual innovation.

Experience

2003 - Present

Director of TV ads – Badkoobeh | Creative Communication Solutions.

2005 - 2015

Creative Director – Badkoobeh | Creative Communication Solutions.

2012 - 2019

Founder- Toranj Production Studio

2012- Present

Member Board Of Director

2015 - 2017

Chief Creative Officer – Badkoobeh | Creative Communication Solutions.

Education

2019 - 2021

York University, Toronto

Master of Arts (MA)- Film/Cinema Studies

2000 - 2004

Azad University (AIU) -Tehran/Arak

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BAs)- Theater Studies

1997- 2000

Art School- Tehran

Diploma- Art & Graphic Design

Knowledge

Film Making
Advertising
Theater Direction
Art Direction
Acting
Creative Management
Video Production
Brand Development
Creative Documentary Directing
Communication Strategy
Script Writing
Creative Directing

Testimonials

Deborah Young

American writer and journalist - HollywoodReporter

Clear-cut, allegorical and unsettling, Dressage might be viewed as an updated Crime and Punishment in which a 16-year-old girl commits a crime, gets away with it, but then finds she’s lost her moral bearings in the self-centered, materialistic world of her parents and friends. This first feature by Pooya Badkoobeh, who has made a career directing TV commercials, plunges deeply into the muddled, exasperating world of teenagers and never loses faith in its rebellious heroine, even when she goes off the rails and the audience’s favor wavers. It won a well-deserved special mention in Berlin’s Generation 14plus sidebar, but the moral quandary of this DreamLab release has adult appeal, too.

Alissa Simon

Variety Journalist

An ethical tale for a new era, the youth drama “Dressage” powerfully illustrates the consequences of growing social divisions within contemporary Iranian society and indicts a middle and upper class that have lost their moral center. Helmer Pooya Badkoobeh’s debut feature centers on an alienated teen, from a family of modest means, who breaks with her group of wealthier, amoral peers after they all commit a thrill-seeking crime. Bolstered by a special mention in the Generations 14plus section of the 2018 Berlinale, further fest play is a given for this provocative look at power, money, hypocrisy, and the gap between generations.

Clients

LG

Nestle

UNICEF

Beko

cif

Domestos

OMO

Unilever

Vision

I like reciting poetry with cinema, When people leave the cinema after seeing this poem, they leave the streets of the city with hope. Because the world is a better place to live only with hopeful people, but not the hope that promises the moon, the hope that it is fertilized by the search for truth in them.