First national film festival held in Uzbekistan

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TASHKENT - “Every journey begins with the first step, and we’ve made it!” says director Shukhrat Mahmudov, coordinator and organiser of Uzbekistan’s first-ever national film festival held at the end of November in Tashkent.

“Uzbek cinema is now 80 years old; it’s time to take stock,” said Mahmudov in characterising the idea behind the festival. The Swiss Office for Cooperation with Central Asian Countries, the public foundation Forum for Uzbek Culture and Arts and Uzbekkino, a national film agency, sponsored the festival.

Film festivals are primarily competitions, and in order to ensure that the Tashkent event would be unbiased, Mahmudov and his organising committee selected an international jury of Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tajik film-makers.

Over the two days of the festival 19 films made in Uzbekistan in the last two years were screened. “This is just a snapshot of the movies made over this period. More than 20 films were made at Uzbekkino’s studios alone. Private film studios, which now number over 30 in this country, produced 48 films. This means that we can now speak of a national film industry,” said Deputy Director of Uzbekkino Jahongir Kasymov.

The jury awarded the Grand Prix of the festival to the film “Yurta” by director Ayub Shahobiddinov, which portrays the situation of peasants in Uzbekistan.