Azerbaijani film wins Izmir Festival prize

/AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The 15th International Short Film Festival was held in Izmir on November 1-5.

Some 1,100 short films from 63 countries took part at the festival this year. Only 10 films were represented in the final.

The Azerbaijani film, “The Last One” became the winner in the category of Best Foreign Film, gaining the festival's "Golden Cat" award.

The prize was awarded by the Head of the Izmir municipality to the Director of Public Relations of the “Buta” Arts Center, Fuad Hatamov.

The president of the jury of the Izmir Festival, the famous Turkish director, Tunch Basharan, highly appraised “The Last One” film.

"The film has been done on a very high level of professionalism. It can be felt in each detail in the work of the director and operator, as well as the deep emotional sense and beautiful music of the film. Despite the presence of other exquisite foreign films in the final, this film has made a lasting impact on us. I believe it is primarily the result of a great work of the film's producers. I congratulate all the staff of the film with this wonderful victory,” he said.

The profound film is directed by Sergei Pikalov. The operator of the film is Denis Madishev and producers are Nasib Piriyev and Mariya Ivanova. The main roles in the film were played by Azerbaijan actors Idris Rustamov and George Kafarov.

The shooting of this original drama was performed in Shabran city, Sura village located 120 km from Baku. "The Last One" is not just a film. This is a story of the success of young producers - Maria Ivanova and Nasib Piriyev (“Buta Films” film studio).

The professionals who shot over 80 films and cyclic broadcasts have established themselves in the field of producing documentaries. They have assayed their strength for the first time in the sphere of feature films and immediately became the participants of the Cannes Film Festival. The film earned the highest scores of the professionals abroad.

Since May 2014, the touching film continues its journey through the major festivals of the world. At the International Short Film Festival in Sao Paulo (Brazil) "The Last One" was awarded by the SESc TV channel as the best debut film of 2014.

The Buta film studio is working under "Buta" Arts Centre. This is a creative team of like-minded persons including professionals who consider the popularization of Azerbaijani culture worldwide as their priority task. The variety of the already implemented projects and other activities including festivals, exhibitions, concerts and films are carried out to this end.

Along with the films which got into the final, 200 other short films were screened for local and foreign spectators during the festival which lasted for 5 days.

The Izmir Festival is viewed as the most prestigious short film festival in Turkey, and every year up to 8,000 spectators participate in it.

2014 is celebrated as the 100th anniversary of the Turkish cinema, and for this reason the 15th Izmir International Short Film Festival this year has a special significance. The Festival jury consists of famous domestic and foreign cinema professionals.