Four films are participating in the two competitive programs of the film festival, which are nominated from their countries for the Academy Award – Oscar. This fact best reflects the high level of programs of the current film festival.

Gulnara Abikeeva, Program Director of the Festival, President of the Association of Film Critics of Kazakhstan, tells about the nominees.

– The film Il Boemo by Czech director Peter Vaclav tells about the composer Josef Myslivecek, who influenced even Mozart. He wrote more than 30 operas and lived an interesting creative life. A very beautiful, bright film, full of opera music, with wonderful costumes and wonderful cast.

The second film is completely opposite. The film Kerr by Turkish Director Typhoon Pirselimoglu tells the story of a man who buries his father. Unlike the Czech film, strictness of style, psychologism, aesthetic image prevails here.

The third film is Brighton 4th directed by Levan Kuguashvili. This is the story of the relationship between a wayward son who lives in America and a father who comes to help and actually provides this help at the cost of his own life. The film is about the power of parental sacrifice, the problems of emigration, Georgian brotherhood, but above all – about the connection of generations.

The Kazakh Oscar nominee is the film Life directed by Emir Baigazin. Six novels tell about a man who is rapidly falling to the bottom – through loans, debts, dismissal at work, lack of money, turning into a homeless man, getting into a mental hospital and a criminal environment. But this is not a dirty trick, but a philosophical reflection on how a person goes to the edge between life and death. A very beautiful, conceptual movie.

These four films are joined by the picture Esimde of Kyrgyz director Aktan Arym Kubat, which has already received this year's Asian Oscar – the award of the Film of the Asia Pacific Region Academy - (APSA), which is a pride for the whole Central Asia.