26 October 2021
The Central Asian Scriptwriting Lab (CASL) is about to wrap up! The initiative was implemented by the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty as part of the "Strengthening Film Industries in Central Asia" project with the support of the government of the Republic of Korea. The final pitch of CASL projects will take place on 28 October 2021 online. In this article, we would like to introduce five recognized cinema experts, producers, and filmmakers, who kindly agreed to join the international CASL jury committee.
All jury members are regularly working with the Asian cinema market and most of them have previously worked in Central Asia. Together they will identify three winners of the CASL Lab based on participants’ presentations.
Meet the CASL pitching jury:
Birgit Beumers. Ms Beumers is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberystwyth, Wales (Department of Theatre, Film & Television Studies). She is editor of the online quarterly “KinoKultura” and of the scholarly journal “Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema”. She has written and edited several books on Russian and Central Asian cinema including 7 research and 15 edited monographs.
Matthieu Darras. Mr Darras designs and leads several programs of film/talent development and consultancy that are active worldwide: the First Cut Lab, the Pop Up Film Residency, and the Full Circle Lab. Previously, he founded and directed the European Network of Young Cinema NISI MASA, wrote for the film magazine "Positif", and was the artistic director of the TorinoFilmLab. He worked as a programmer for the Cannes Critics’ Week, as a consultant for the Venice Film Festival, and as a delegate for the San Sebastian Film Festival. He also directed the Bratislava Film Festival.
Benjamin Illos. Mr Illos is the East and South-East Asian correspondent for the Directors’ Fortnight, an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival, and home of daring and adventurous new cinema. Mr Illos has been working over the years as a script researcher, film editor and critic. He collaborated with Pierre Rissient for a decade, championing films and directors.
Young-woo Kim. Mr Kim studied Visual Arts & TV at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA. He worked for Busan International Film Festival as a programmer in charge of Asian cinema and a member of the selection committee of Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) and Asian Project Market (APM) as well. Working closely with the Korean independent cinema groups, he has been a board member of Seoul Independent Film Festival. Since 2019, he has worked for DMZ DOCS as a programmer, and also a program advisor of IDFA 2020.
George Ovashvili. Mr Ovashvili is a director, writer and producer. His first feature film “The Other Bank” premiered at the Berlin Film Festival's Generation section in 2009 and won over 50 international prizes and was nominated at European Film Awards in the nomination “European Discovery”. His second feature “Corn Island” won the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Academy’s best foreign language film in 2015.After having produced his own works, George started a film production company “Wagonnet Films”.
Previous Materials:
— Introduction of the Project Participants;
— Introduction of the Project Trainers;
— Diary 1: Reviewing Applications and Selecting Participants;
— Diary 2: Consultations of Yulia Levitskaya;
— Diary 3: Story of Aizada;
— Diary 4: Story of Azizbek;
— Diary 5: Story of Hurshed;
— Diary 6: Story of Ainur;
— Diary 7: Consultations of Iskandar Usmonov;
— Diary 8: Consultations of Erke Dzhumakmatova;
— Diary 9: Consultations of Saodat Ismailova.
Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/diary-9-of-the-central-asian-scriptwriting-lab-introduction-of-the-jury-of-the-final