Overseen by the Fund Forum with support from Uzbekkino National Agency, the Festival has been given the slogan Civilizations of the 21st Century: Dialogue of Cultures. One of the stages in preparations for the festival has been the short film contest The Beginning, which was rounded up on June 15 at a press conference in Tashkent.

The short film contest was held as part of the preparatory work for the upcoming festival. Over 30 works by young cinema professionals, students and graduates of the State Institute of Arts of Uzbekistan were presented to the juried contest. The entries included 30-minute short films created in 2009-2011. The winning short films will be presented to the selection panel for the international festival in the category “Short films”.

The works selected for the contest included progressive films featuring originality and individuality. The main goal of the contest is to assess the level of works by young cinema professionals in the given format and to support their creative potential and innovative works.

Ayub Shakhobiddinov, film director and chair of “Beginning” contest jury:

“The Beginning Contest has as its goal to determine the potential of young cinematographers. We received over 30 works from students of the Institute of Arts and independent professionals. It’s amazing that we’re getting more and more young film directors who address serious issues such as moral values, and try to convey philosophical messages while employing mature approaches to the issues. These young professionals represent the potential of Uzbek cinema. We hope their creations will be approved by the Selection Panel of the Festival. We encourage all young film directors and established professionals to participate in the contest in the future and to support the Fund Forum’s idea for Tashkent International Festival of Contemporary Cinema.”

Five films have emerged as winners of “The Beginning” Contest: “Mobile phone” by Daniyel Musayelov; “Hayot eshigi” (The door of life) by Hasan Akhmedov; “600 seconds” by Kamol Ikromov; “Ikki yo’l” (Two roads) by Kamol Yorqulov; and “Nazar” (The look) by Umid Hamdamov. The jury also awarded a young film director Shavkat Yuldashev for “fruitful assistance in organizing the contest”.

Professor Akbar Hakimov, the Director General of the International Festival, spoke of plans regarding similar contests, roundtables and press conferences in the categories “Feature films”, “Animated films” and the study of the socio-cultural phenomenon of national cinema. He also spoke of plans on attracting attention to the problem of viewer culture. This, in turn, points to the fact that the Festival is not limited to demonstrating films; it also studies global trends in cinematography and addresses the spiritual component of cinema.

The Working Group has developed the Festival slogan, motto, goals and tasks. Based on the historical adherence of the region’s nations to inter-civilization interaction, the Festival will be held under the slogan “Civilizations of the 21st Century: Dialogue of Cultures”, which expresses the main strategic goal of the festival project: build and develop an intercultural dialog among nations of the world through cinema art.

The Festival concept is aimed at searching for works, trends and forms reflecting the diversity and specifics of modern man’s inner world, which is seen in the festival motto “Human stories: a philosophy of feelings”.

The Festival goals:

• attract extraordinary cinema works that help develop cinema language and reflect trends in global cinematography; boost public interest in cinema as a means of conserving national cultures and universal values;
• contribute to an effective interaction between western cinema as a source of democratic values on one side, and oriental cinema reflecting a deep philosophy of feeling and lofty ethical ideas on the other;
• consolidate and develop international links in cinema, particularly with Asian countries that are Uzbekistan’s prospective partners in cinema development;
• set up links with prominent cinematographers in Europe, North America and South America with recognized achievements; establish contacts with young cinema professionals from Africa and Australia who have been active in the global art scene;
• contribute to the development and popularization of national cinema, promote and advocate Uzbek films;
• present Uzbekistan’s unique historical legacy to attract representatives of global cinema industry;
• familiarize local public with leading contemporary films;
• discover young talented cinematographers and support their professional endeavors.