And the winner is:
Audience Choice: Amangeldi-Azat Maratuly & Kamila Bissembina, The Basement
Best Actress: Yasmin Saulabey, Trust(me) & Nozanin Khassanova, (Anxiety)
Best Actor: Alexander Cherepanov, I For You & Ilya Dimitriyev, Trust(me)
Best Supporting Role: all actors ,The Basement
Best Cinematography: Fernando Santos-Lachenal & Kamila Arynkazy, Trust(me)
Best story: Kamila Bissembina & Amangeldi-Azat Muratuly, The Basement
Best use of the Prop: Amangeldi-Azat Maratuly & Leila Borzova, The Basement and Mariya Semyonova, Lucky
Best soundtrack and design: Bernardo Santos-Lachenal, Trust(me) & Nozanin Khassanova, Anxiety
Best editing Bernardo Santos-Lachenal, Trust(me)
Best movie Bernardo Santos-Lachenal, Trust(me)
The same weekend the 2025 Oscars were celebrated in Hollywood, KIMEP celebrated its own film producers and actors with its own Weekend Film Challenge.
Students had 72-hours to write, direct, act and film a movie up to 5 minutes long. Eleven groups completed the task and a range of films were produced including a spy-romance film, a group of law students trapped in a basement (freed by a potato), and my favorite, a story about a disabled man who, while trying to take his own life, ended up accidentally shooting his girlfriend (I may have produced this particular movie).
This was the second competition this academic year, with the inaugural film festival occurring last November. Some students who participated in the previous festival returned to give it a second shot.
“The filming was non-stop for all three days,” said Ilya Dmitriyev, an actor in both festivals, but this time took home the Best Actor award for his work in “Trust (me).” “We had a stand with scenes, and we had to follow it as planned. No one slept, we were looking for locations, everyone was working hard. I didn’t expect that we would win so many awards.”
“I was really impressed with the number of groups submitting work this time and the 10-fold improvement in the quality of the submissions,” said organizer Assistant Professor Cole Russing. “I hope to see this program continue to grow and in the future include universities from around Almaty and Kazakhstan.”
Indeed, much like many of these fledgling filmmakers, this program has growing aspirations, but on Mar. 7, dozens of students and guests gathered to receive recognition for their work as well as 250,000 tenge in awards. No goodie bags, beyond pizza, were provided during the official debut of the films.
“There were many movies that have reminded me about some of the already existing films, and I think that this is really interesting how students use representations of those movies on their own, combining ideas, and I liked the concept of many movies,” said Gulim Zhorakhan, a student who is friends with some of the filmmakers.”
“I’m grateful that we have such events because it is critical to motivate students,” she said. “About improvements, in the future they could have created more conditions for fairer voting and invited special guests for their opinion. In the end, I’ll be waiting for the next film challenge.”
There were as many genres in this competition as there were in the Oscars including romance, thriller, horror, noir, and even comedy. Every film ended with thunderous applause. While a group of judges voted on most of the nominations, the attending crowd bestowed, perhaps the highest honor to the filmmakers: The Audience Choice, considered the favorite by all of those in attendance. The Basement, a comedy that mixed student life, law school, and a quick marriage, took home that honor.
“It was an interesting experience, supporting the young creative community. It motivates you to do more. Many tried themselves in different roles, including me, who happened to be on set by chance. What can I say, I even managed to get married.” said Ersultan Toktamysov, who played the Frenchman in “The Basement”.
“I did not judge, but there were eight judges: four were KIMEP’s professors from media and communication, social science, journalism and also arts, and there were working actors from LA, costume designer from UK, filmmaker from Seattle and producer from Finland,” said Russing.
The program was sponsored by the College of Social Sciences, the Department of Media and Communications, which is introducing a film minor next fall. There are even bigger plans beyond that, officials in the department said. But we will all have to stay tuned.
Editor’s Note: Shakira Ilyanova was a participant in the film festival and directed I For You. It was really good.