Yerlan Nurmukhambetov

Film writer and director

He is the Head of the Department of “Cinema and TV” at the Kazakh National University of Arts (Astana). The winner of the Grand Prix of the Busan International Film Festival (South Korea) in the New Currents section and the Grand Prix for the Best Asian Film at the Fajr Film Festival (Iran), and the awards of the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema and the International Film Festival Innsbruck, Austria (“The Walnut Tree”, 2016). The Award-winner for the Best Foreign Drama at the International Film Festival in Hollywood, US (“A Hunter Boy”, 2012). The owner of the Grand Prix of the VII Eurasia International Film Festival in Kazakhstan (“Before the Storm”, 2011).

Nazira Mukusheva

Film expert, Kazakhstan

Gaziz Nasyrov

Film director and writer, Kazakhstan

Bekbolat Shekerov

film expert, Kazakhstan (short film)

Azat Khakimov

Film director, professor at Turan University, Kazakhstan

Birgit Beumers

Film critic. Birgit Beumers is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Aberystwyth, Wales (UK). She has published widely on cinema and theatre, including A History of Russian Cinema (2009) and, as co-editor Cinema in Central Asia (2013). She is currently working on a directory of Central Asian cinema. She is editor of KinoKultura (online) and of the academic journal Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema.

Boris Shulman

director of sales, program consultant for the Gothenburg International Film Festival, Sweden