Who is to judge: 11 countries’ representatives are the jury of the “Altyn minbar”

The competition program of the XX “Altyn minbar” the Kazan International Film Festival will be evaluated by representatives of 11 countries.

This year, the jury board is chaired by Metin Gunay (Türkiye). He is widely known as the director of TV series like Resurrected Ertugrul and Foundation: Osman.

His other TV series, Rush Hours (Sıcak Saatler), Bread Boat (Ekmek Teknesi), Furious Heart (Deli Yürek) are highly recognized by the critics. The secret of his success, they consider, is that in his profound work, he pays attention to every single detail.

The jury is joined by Doctor of Media Philosophy Misfer Almousa (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Head of Department of Cinema and Theatre in Media and Communications College of the Imam University, Consultant on Drama Content in MBC and Shahid Platform, and the advisor for the Culture Agency under the Ministry of Culture and Information. He specializes in research documentaries.

Within the course of his professional activity, he wrote scripts for such documentaries as The Last of the Bedouins, Homeland in the Eyes of Travelers, The Road to the Island of Silence, Daughter of the Desert, and The Fugitives of Their Religion.

He is not new to being on the jury, previously Misfer Almousa participated in the Saudi Film Festival, the Sohar International Film Festival, the Saudi Media Award, the Media Excellence Award, and the Cultural Skills Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture.

Also, Esma Daniel, the Malaysian actor, producer, and director, joined the jury membership. Among the films he has starred in recently are Juang (2019), Air Force: The Movie (2019), and Sheriff: Narko Integrity (2024). In total, Esma Daniel has starred in hundreds of TV drama series. Among them are Bukan Khadijah, Love in Lock Down, Cinta Hati Abah, etc. 

Currently, he holds the position of Honorary Secretary of the Digital Creative Content Associations of Malaysia (DCAM).

The jury will also be joined by film critic and social activist Premendra Mazumder. He is the Vice President of the Federation of Film Societies of India, Asia-Pacific Secretary of the International Federation of Film Societies, General Secretary of the India Chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI, and Editor of the quarterly film journal E-Cine India.

He has served on the jury at more than forty film festivals worldwide. Furthermore, he is the recipient of the coveted Ritwik Ghatak Award (Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 2016), the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award (Asian Film Foundation Mumbai, India, 2018), and the Vijaya Mulay Lifetime Achievement Award (FFSI-Keralam, India, 2023) for his contribution to cinema in various capacities. 

The jury will be joined by director, screenwriter, actor, and National Artist of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan Artykpai Suyundukov. He is experienced in making feature and documentary films. The most popular of them are The Roads Met, Among People, and Shambala.

Currently, he is teaching film directing at the Kyrgyz-Turkish “Manas” University.

The jury board also includes Khaled Yossef from Egypt, whose Chaos, This Is (Heya Fawda) and “Hena Mysara” films were listed among the “100 Best Arab Films of All Time” in 2013.

For the first time, among the jury members is an Omani representative, Hamid Al Ameri. He is the author of media publications and has directed many films that have won local and international festival awards.

The committee is also joined by Hussein Mohsen Douij the Iraqi filmmaker and director of the Babylon Animation Film Festival. His filmography includes 20 films, including feature, documentary, and animated ones. “Coal and Ashes”, “Red Window”, A Man from Beyond Borders and The Road to Baghdad are his films.

He won many awards, including the first prize at the Gulf Film Festival (GFF) in Dubai for the film Coal and Ashes, an award from the Barnes Festival in Britain, and the Best Foreign Short Film Award from the Ireneusz Radź XXVII International Independent Films Festival PUBLICYSTYKA 2020.

The next jury member is film director, playwright, and honorary artist of Uzbekistan, Yusup Razykov. As CEO of Uzbekfilm Studio, he initiated a new stream in Uzbek cinema. He is also known as the chairman and juror of numerous foreign and Russian film festivals. In total, his films won nearly 100 awards. Among his main awards are the FIPRESCI Prize at the 48th Karlovy Vary Film Festival for the “Shame” film; the main prize for the best feature film of the 25th International Film Festival in Trieste (Italy) for the “Shame” film; and the Grand Prix for the Best Feature Film at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival “East-West” for the “Shame” film.

Председатель и член жюри многочисленных зарубежных и российских кинофестивалей.

His Orator film was highly recognized by the film critics and became a sensation in post-soviet territory.

The jury is joined by Juliana Slascheva a media manager, an expert in the field of communications, the Chairman of the Directorial Board of the Soyuzmultfilm Film Studio (since 2017), the Chairman of the Board of the Animation Film Association, and the CEO of the Gorky Film Studio.

In 2021, she got an award pin from the Ministry of Culture of Russia “for contribution to Russian culture”. In 2023, she was awarded the Medal of Honor “185 Years of State Property Management of Russia” for the effective management of state property of the Russian Federation. Later, in November 2023, she joined the Russian department of the BRICS Women's Business Alliance.

We also would like to mention that “Altyn minbar” the Kazan International Film Festival caught the attention of a prestigious Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC). NETPAC is awarded at selected international film festivals with the aim to popularize the Asian cinema with the means of drawing the attention to exclusive films and discovering of new talents.

At the festival, the NETPAC is represented by Maxim Kaziutchits a film critic, journalist, PhD in philosophy, and lead researcher at the All-Russians State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK); Alfiya Yarosh a sound producer, an Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, a member of the Cinematographers Union of Russia, and an old pro; and Nadir Badalov a member of the Cinematographers Union of Azerbaijan.

The XX “Altyn minbar” of the Kazan International Film Festival will take place from September 6 to 11.

We would like to emphasize that “Altyn Minbar” is included in the list of film projects supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The film forum is held with the support of the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the Ministry of Culture of Russia, and in partnership with the strategic vision group “Russia-Islamic World.”