The 15th Eurasia International Film Festival kicked off in the Kazakh capital. The event features participants from 11 countries and the best film producers and directors from Europe and Asia. 12 feature films and the same number of short films entered the main competition of the festival. President of the 15th Eurasia International Film Festival, Yermek Tursunov said that the films were selected based on certain principles. “First of all, they should be new and released in 2018 or 2019. The films should be participants or even winners of large international festivals. We also invited prominent film managers and producers from all over the world and we will try to explain to them about Kazakhstan and show our capacities to stir interest to engage in film production and co-production in Kazakhstan,” he said. Foreign experts said that the Eurasia Film Festival is becoming more prestigious every year. The festival allows filmmakers to showcase their works once again. “I follow what is happening at film festivals. I knew when ‘Aika’ got a prize in Cannes. In your art-house cinema, it is absolutely on the world level. I’ve watched the film of Yermek Tursunov, ‘Zhat.’ This is an absolutely world-class feature film,” said Sergei Rakhlin, Chairperson of Jury. Round tables, conferences, cinema master classes and pitching have been organized at the film festival. Moreover, a number of non-competitive programs will be presented.
