Kazan International Film Festival «Altyn Minbar»

The Kazan International Film Festival, “Altyn Minbar” has been held since 2005. The first forum was organized under the initiative of the Muftis Council of Russia, the Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan with the support of Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Kazan International Film Festival “Altyn Minbar” has been held under the motto “Through the dialogue of cultures to the culture of dialogue.”.

It is aimed at:

-  Experiential exchange between artists from Russia, the CIS, and non-CIS countries;

-  Introduction of achievements of the cinematographers making films promoting universal spiritual and cultural values;

The best films appealing to kindness, peace, and fairness, regardless of the author’s religion, are selected for the program.

Previous years demonstrated the forum as an active participant of the international cultural process.

Among those willing to submit their films are representatives from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Greece, Türkiye, the UAE, Singapore, Tajikistan, India, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Belarus, France, Australia, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Palestine, and Syria.

The selection and jury committees are formed by well-known film directors, cameramen, and film experts from all over the world.

The international community expresses rising interest in the Kazan film festival. From year to year, the number of participants and films submitted grows. Forty films from twelve countries were submitted for the very first festival. And, 700 applications from 44 countries are submitted for the XIX festival.

Among honored guests within the course of the festival existence were Catherine Deneuve, Adrien Brody, Isabelle Adjani, Mark Dacascos, Emir Kusturica, Aydan Shener, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Armand Assante, Azizollah Hamidnezhad, Ilham Shaheen, Iya Ninidze, Krzysztof Zanussi, Selim Bayraktar, Jevklid Kjurdzidis, Ali Burak Jeylan, Nikita Mikhalkov, Eldar Ryazanov, Yevgeny Mironov, Margarita Terekhova, Aristarkh Livanov, Alexander Mitta, Igor Petrenko, Alla Surikova, Veniamin Smekhov, Vera Glagoleva, Anton Makarski, Maxim Averin, Alexander Filippenko, Oleg Tabakov, Pavel Maykov, Vladimir Men’shov, Armen Djigarkhanyan, Andrew Konchalovski, Alexander Gordon, Karen Shakhnazarov, Oscar Kuchera, Valentina Talyzina, Dmitri Diuzhev, Tatyana Abramova, Alexey Uchitel’, Alexey Petrenko, Liudmila Khityaeva, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Marat Basharov, Victor Merezhko, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Stanislav Bondarenko, Olesya Sudzilovskaya, Dmitri Gordon, Ivan Kolesnikov, Alexander Galibin, Natalya Varlei.

Over the past five years, 18 cooperation arrangements between Kazan film festivals and international festivals were signed.

1. Asuan International Women Film Festival (AIWFF) (Egypt)

2.  Sharm El Sheikh Film Festival

3.  “Turkic world” documentary film festival

4.  “Eurasia” international film festival (Kazakhstan)

5.  Geneva International Oriental Film Festival (FIFOG)

6.  “Religion today” film festival (Italy)

7.  Shaken Aimanov International festival (Kazakhstan)

8.  Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival (Nepal)

9.  Festival of short films for children and youth, “Damascus Cinema Days” (Syria)

10. “Didor” international film festival (Tajikistan)

11.  Dagestan International Film Festival “Kunaki” (Russia, Dagestan)

12.  “Irida” International Film Festival (SIFFA) (Sochi, London)

13.  Iranian Documentary Film Festival

14.  Bridge of Arts: International Motivational Film Festival (Russia, Rostov-on-Don)

15.  In Love with Art: International Film Festival (Saint Petersburg)

16.  International Film Festival “Literature and Cinema”

17. Al’-Ain Film Festival (UAE, Abu Dhabi)

18. Yasmine Hammamet International Film Festival (Tunisia)

In October 2018, the Kazan International Film Festival became the laureate of the Russian Event Awards. On the All-Russian stage, the forum was presented in the nomination Best ethnical and cultural event.

The business platform Altyn Minbar is the territory of a unity of specialists in the fields of cinematography, education, the film industry, producers, representatives of film festivals and partners, film forums, international film organizations, experts, and opinion leaders.

The business platform provides conditions for project implementation and signing arrangements in the field of cinema and has three directions:

1. International pitching of film projects

2.  Regional film market

3. Workshops

International pitching is a public defense of film projects (screenplays or scenario entries—synopsis) before the expert council. The main task is to stimulate the development of joint film production with the Republic of Tatarstan in the regions of Russia, including the participation of foreign countries and the discovery of new names in the cinematic world. The previous year, the expert committee was joined by the following cinema figures:

-  Tahsin Nazim: Owner and producer of «Zakariya Entertainment» film company

- Mohammad Hamidi Moghadam: producer and director of the Iranian International Documentary Film Festival, «Cinéma vérité»

-  Ashraf Sarkhan: actor, producer

- Almohannad Kalthoum: director, producer (Syria).

More than that, the presentation of projects was evaluated by the deputy minister of culture of the Republic of Tatarstan Damir Natfullin; first deputy chairman of the Cinematographers Union of Russia, Larisa Solonitsyna the head of the Council of Regional Cinematography Support Fund (Moscow); Dmitry Yakunin Deputy Executive Director of the Regional Cinema Support Fund; director Yekaterina Golovnya; psychologist, film expert, screenwriter, and producer Anna Pendrakovskaya; CEO, producer of LLC “Okapi production” Tatyana Trenina; producer and head of “TheOneFilm” film school Valentina Bespalaya. Also, the expert council was joined by representatives of Tatarstan – CEO of Fotozoom Rental Ruslan Chaves and director of recording studio Igor Sidenko.

In 2023, 144 entries from 20 countries of the world were registered. 13 projects were included in the short-list.

Joint production is expected with such countries as China, Türkiye, Iran, Syria, Nepal, Egypt, India, Belarus, Hungary, the UAE, Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Germany, Austria, Morocco, Fillippines, Senegal.

The geography of Russian projects has covered many areas: from the central regions of Russia to the most remote parts of our country (Irkutsk Region, Sakhalin Region, Zabaikalsky Krai, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, North Caucasus Federal District, Kaliningrad Region, Magadan Region, Krasnoyarsk District, Altai District and others).

The winner of the international pitching of film projects of the XIX Kazan Film Festival and owner of the Grand Prix of 500 thousand rubles was the project of Kazan director Julia Zakharova “Apartment No. 7.”.

One of the key events of the business platform is the Regional Film Market.

In 2023, the third film market was held within the festival. Film studios, distribution companies, online cinemas, TV channels, and films by independent producers and directors were presented. Producers and distributors from India, China, Iran, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan joined the event. At the first event, more than thirty companies from Russian regions were introduced.

Four workshops were organized within the previous forum:

1. “Renaissance of Egyptian Cinematography”. Speaker: director, actor, producer Ashraf Sarkhan (Egypt)

2. “Modern Syrian Cinematography”. Speaker: Almohannad Kalthoum

3. Indian film industry. Catching up with Hollywood. Speaker: Karen Mirzoyan, co-owner and general producer of “Indian Films”.

4.   Pitfalls of the copyright in film production. Speaker: Anna Kozlovskaya, PhD in law, producer

In 2023, at the Kazan State Institute of Culture, the first discussion platform “Film blogging and film criticism. New reality” was held. Wide-known film experts, film critics, producers, directors, internet-blogs writers, journalists and film festivals experts from Russia and Tatarstan.

Within the XIX Kazan Film Festival on September 6, an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Tatarstan cinematography was opened in public places of the Kazan Kremlin. The material was gathered from the whole republic: private collections, the Museum of Cinema of the Kazan Institute of Culture, and the “Breath of Time” exposition from the Cinematographers Union of the Republic of Tatarstan. Over the 19-year course of the festival, more than eighty exhibits as well as hundreds of archival photographs and pictures of honored guests are presented.

In 2023, the NETPAC (a prestigious network for the promotion of Asian cinema) jury joined the forum again. This network unites film critics, cinematographers, curators of film festivals, and film distributors. The jury was formed by:

·      Dr. Rashmi Doraiswami, a professor at the Academy of International Studies named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar (India),

·      a film historian and leading researcher at the Research Center for Film Education and Screen Arts of the Russian State University of Cinematography, named after S. Gerasimov (VGIK) Sergey Kapterev

Chairman of the Tatarstan regional branch of the Cinematographers Union of the Russian Federation, Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildar Yagafarov.

In 2024, the Organizing Committee of the festival made a suggestion to return the former brand name “Altyn Minbar” before holding the XX film forum, which will take place in Kazan from September 6 to 11.

The selection committee of the XX film festival is formed by: Timur Shaikhullin, the Doctor of Philology, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Philology and Country Studies of the Russian Islamic Institute; Svetlana Slapke, Doctor of Philosophy and Arts, film critic, author of articles and publications about culture and cinema of Central Asia; Türkiye, CEO of “Eurasia Global Connecting Agency”; and Rushan Abbyasov deputy chairman and head of staff of the Muftis Council of Russia, chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Moscow region.

Like last year, the Selection Committee is headed by Nina Kochelyaeva, the historian, cultural scientist, director of the New Institute of Cultural Studies, researcher of VGIK, and doctoral candidate of the Laboratory of Practice and Technologies of Intercultural Dialogue Modeling in the Russian Federation of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

The official selection will be presented by feature and short films and documentaries, as well as a national competition. More than that, this year a new nomination for Best Animated Film has been established.

Within its course of existence, the festival has acquired the status of a prestigious cinematographers’ forum and has become an essential part of the cultural life of Kazan, an event that contributes to strengthening the image of the city as a cultural capital.

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