Baku to host 16th International Film Festival

From December 5 to 9, Baku will host the 16th International Film Festival – Baku International Film Festival, organized by the Young Filmmakers Center, Azernews reports.

This year, the festival is held within the framework of the Baku Cinema Breeze 25 festival, organized by the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry and the Azerbaijan Cinema Agency.

The opening ceremony of the festival will take place on December 5 at 19:00 at the Nizami Cinema Center. The event will be attended by representatives of the Culture Ministry, diplomatic missions of foreign states, members of the international jury, as well as prominent figures of culture and art.

Over the course of five days, 78 films from 34 countries will be screened at the Nizami Cinema Center. Screenings are open to all. Since last year, the festival has included a feature film competition and offers four competitive programs, each evaluated by a separate jury.

The international program of debut feature films includes 10 works, which will be judged by renowned film critic and screenwriter Nadir Badalov (Azerbaijan), director and screenwriter Niki Karimi (Iran), European Film Academy Award winner for Best Producer Zeynep Atakan (Turkiye), and film expert Igor Sukman (Belarus).

The national competition features 16 short fiction and documentary films, as well as 5 student works. Among these 21 entries, the best will be determined by a jury consisting of director and producer Fariz Ahmadov, winner of awards at festivals in Serbia, Russia, and Poland; Iranian director and producer Reza Siami, who works on promoting Azerbaijani films abroad; and film critics Farida Jalilova and Sevda Sultanova, known for their publications in the fields of art, cinema, and television.

The international short film jury will be chaired by Faruk Güven, head of the film department at Turkish TV channel TRT and producer; director Rufat Asadov, whose documentaries have won awards at international festivals; and New Zealand critic Carmen Gray.

The jury of the Asian Talents competition will include producer Ali-Sattar Guliyev, laureate of awards at Cannes, Tampere, Kazan, Tashkent, and Dushanbe festivals; Roman Dorofeev (Russia), program director of the international film festival "East–West. Classics and Avant-garde"; and international award-winning director and cinematographer Daniel Guliyev.

The festival's main prize is the "Golden Pomegranate" (Q?z?l Nar). In addition, winners in several categories will receive special prizes and diplomas.

In addition to the competition program, audiences will be offered non-competition screenings. For example, within the program "Our Language," films shot in Azerbaijani by compatriots living in different countries will be presented. Cooperation with the British Council allows the festival to annually organize special screenings of films nominated for the BAFTA Awards.

The closing ceremony and awards presentation will take place on December 9 at 19:00 at the Nizami Cinema Center.

The festival is supported by the Azerbaijan Filmmakers Union, Nizami Cinema Center, British Council, ?ahda?film studio, Azerbaijan National Council of Youth Organizations, Cinelab, DOST TV, and the Yunus Emre Institute.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.Az, Trend.Az, Day.Az, and Milli.Az.