Gulnara Abikeyeva

Gulnara Abikeyeva is a film critic from Kazakhstan, and the author of several books about films and cinema process. Her second book Cinema of Central Asia: 1990-2001 received the prestigious White Elephant Award of Guild of Film Critics of Russia as the best book about cinema of the year published in CIS. Her book Nation-Building in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian States, and How This Process Is Reflected in Cinematography (2006) was awarded the national Kulager Prize in 2007. In 2013 she had three international publications: Cinema in Central Asia: Rewriting Cultural Histories (Great Britain), co-edited by Michael Rouland and Birgit Beumers, The Unknown New Wave of Central Asian Cinema (South Korea), co-edited by Kim Ji-Seok, and Makhmalbaf’s Film House (Russia). She is a member of FIPRESCI, NETPAC and the APSA Academy. In 2016 she was awarded by French L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

In this edition of LEFFEST, Gulnara Abikeyeva is the co-curator of the Focus on Central Asian Cinema.