17th Kazan International Film Festival jury members announced

The film festival jury

KAZAN: The final composition of the jury of the XVII Kazan International Muslim Film Festival, which will be held in the capital of Tatarstan from 5 to 10 September, has become known. Films will be judged by filmmakers from 10 countries of the world – from Sweden to India.

Elchin Musaoglu, an Azerbaijani film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, co-founder of the Society for Assistance in the Development of Documentary Films and Copyright Programs, was appointed as the chairman of the jury of the 17th Film Forum.

He is best known for his film “The 40th Door”, which received awards at film festivals in America, Azerbaijan, Germany, Montenegro and Kazakhstan, also the film “Nabat” – a nominee for the Venice Film Festival and “Oscar” in the category “Best Foreign Film”.

The jury includes director of the Casablanca Film Festival, film critic Jerome Hammadi (Morocco), director of the Arab Film Festival in Gothenburg, member of the Swedish Writers’ Association Fajr Yakub (Sweden), film director, art director of the International Mediterranean Film Festival   Almohannad Kalthom (Syria), poet , translator, film director, screenwriter, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Kairbekov (Kazakhstan), film critic, screenwriter, executive director of the GN Interpartners group of companies Valeria Baykeeva (Russia).

Also members of the jury of KIFMK-2021 are film and television director, screenwriter Kamal Swaroop (India), cameraman, director, teacher in cinematography, cinema history, aesthetics and editing Saeed Nagati, poet, writer, journalist Ashraf Dali (Egypt) and Turkish actor best known for his roles as the eunuch Sumbülya Agha in The Magnificent Age and Chandarla Khalil Pasha in the Netflix miniseries Rise of the Ottoman Empire Selim Bayraktar (Turkey).

These experts will have to evaluate 50 films of the competition program – 10 films each in 5 main nominations (fiction full and short film, documentary full and short film, as well as the “National Competition”).

Applications for participation in the Kazan Film Festival were accepted from February 1 to June 1 2021. Within the framework of the application campaign, 584 applications were received from 45 countries of the world. The films were selected for the main program by a commission led by Kazakh film expert and film critic, president of the Association of Film Critics of Kazakhstan Gulnara Abikeeva.

This year the films of the Kazan International Festival will be shown in the Rodina and Mir cinemas. The opening ceremony of the largest film forum in Tatarstan will take place on September 5 at the Kazan City Hall, the closing ceremony on September 10 at the Pyramida cultural and entertainment complex. In addition to the main program, during the days of the festival, viewers will be able to see extensive non-competitive and parallel programs.

The Muslim Film Festival has been held in the capital of Tatarstan since 2005. Films of domestic and world cinematography are selected for the festival program, calling for tolerance, peace and justice (regardless of the religion of the author). The motto of the forum is “Through the dialogue of cultures – towards the culture of dialogue”.

The XVII Kazan International Muslim Film Festival will traditionally be held with the support of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, in partnership with the strategic vision group “Russia – Islamic World”. The founders of the festival are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Mayor’s Office of Kazan and the Council of Muftis of the Russian Federation.