Director, producer, scriptwriter. Studied in the departments of cinematography (class of V. Yusov) and scriptwriting (class of A. Bizyak) at the Film Institute VGIK.

In 1988 the first film based on his script hit the screens: “ASSA” (dir. Sergei Soloviev). He directed two films: “Kiks” (1991) and “Hammer and Sickle” (1994). Both films have won numerous awards at national and international festivals, and participated in the competition programmes of Kinotavr. For the next 23 years Livnev worked in film production, both in Russia and America, repeatedly entering the chart of the top-10 Russian producers. In 2017 returned to directing and made the film “Van Goghs”, based on his own script.