The fresh-faced and dynamic Almaty Film Festival has wrapped after a successful seven-day run (14-20 September), and ended on Friday night with the awards ceremony, which was held at the Palace of the Republic in Kazakhstan’s largest city.

The triumphant film of the night was Marko Škop’s Let There Be Light [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marko Škop
entrevista: Milan Ondrík
ficha de la película], which won the Grand Prix in the Official Selection, focused on films that were co-produced by at least two countries. The prizes were dished out by the International Jury, headed up by British director-producer Hugh Hudson, and comprising Russian producer Natalya Ivanova, Portuguese producer António Costa Valente, president of the Tokyo International Film Festival Takeo Hisamatsu and Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova.

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The Best Director Award went to Maryam Touzani’s feature debut, Adam [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], while Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven [+lee también:
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entrevista: Elia Suleiman
ficha de la película] was awarded with the Jury’s Special Prize. The Best Actor trophy went to two thesps ex aequo, as Valentin Novopolskij and Dawid Ogrodnik, who star in Oleg [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juris Kursietis
ficha de la película] by Juris Kursietis, shared the award, while Georgian actress Salome Demuria was presented with the Best Actress Award for her performance in Dito Tsintsadze’s Inhale-Exhale [+lee también:
entrevista: Salome Demuria
ficha de la película].

In the non-competitive documentary section, which is organised in collaboration with UNESCO and this year focused on “Women in Cinema”, Women of the Silk Road by Yassamin Maleknasr won the special UNESCO Main Award. Also, Hepi Meti’s Merata, How Mum Decolonized the Screen and Barbara Miller’s #Female Pleasure [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] received the UNESCO Recognition Award.

Finally, at the Alatau Film Awards, which are dedicated to commercial Kazakh films that have been particularly appreciated by the local audience, Best Film was bestowed upon Holidays Offline by Ruslan Akun, as decided via a secret ballot procedure on the Almaty Film Festival website. The other major winner of the local awards was Financier: Playoff Game by Elena Lisasina, which picked up four awards, including Best Director and Best Script.

Finally, jury president and Almaty Film Festival special guest Hugh Hudson received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the president of the festival, Akan Satayev.

Here is the complete list of winners at the second Almaty Film Festival:

Official Selection

Grand Prix
Let There Be Light [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marko Škop
entrevista: Milan Ondrík
ficha de la película] - Marko Škop (Slovakia/Czech Republic)

Best Director
Maryam Touzani - Adam [+lee también:
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Special Jury Prize
It Must Be Heaven [+lee también:
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entrevista: Elia Suleiman
ficha de la película] - Elia Suleiman (France/Germany/Canada/Turkey/Qatar)

Best Actor
Valentin Novopolskij and Dawid Ogrodnik - Oleg [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juris Kursietis
ficha de la película] (Latvia/Belgium/Lithuania/France)

Best Actress
Salome Demuria - Inhale-Exhale [+lee también:
entrevista: Salome Demuria
ficha de la película] (Georgia/Russia/Sweden)

Documentary Films

UNESCO Main Award
Women of the Silk Road - Yassamin Maleknasr (Iran/Oman/Tajikistan/Turkey)

UNESCO Recognition Award
Merata, How Mum Decolonized the Screen - Hepi Meti (New Zealand)
#Female Pleasure [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Barbara Miller (Switzerland/Germany)

Alatau Film Awards

Best Film
Holidays Offline - Ruslan Akun (Kazakhstan)

Best Director
Elena Lisasina - Financier: Playoff Game (Kazakhstan)

Best Script
Dmitriy Bogomolov - Financier: Playoff Game

Best Actor
Chingiz Kapin and Asylkhan Tolepov - Financier: Playoff Game

Best Actress
Kuralay Anarbekova - Brother or Marriage 2 (Kazakhstan)

Best Cinematographer
Azamat Dulatov - Lift (Kazakhstan)

Best Composer
Alim Zairov and Roman Vishnevskiy - Businessmen (Kazakhstan)

Best Editor
Sergey Bergugin - Financier: Playoff Game