Kazakhstan's Harmony Lessons earns two more awards

Harmony Lessons made by Kazakhstan director Emir Baigazin has earned two more awards from European film festivals in Poland and Belgium, Tengrinews reports citing the press-service of KazakhFilm studios. The first award of the two new ones came from NETPAC (The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) jury at the Warsaw Film Festival. The film was screened in the Discoveries section of the Warsaw Film Festival in Poland. The jury praised the Kazakhstan movie for depiction of sensitive issues with impressive visual style, perfect casting and amazing sense of mise-en-scene. The NETPAC jury included the Polish film journalist and critic Magdalena Bartczak, Australian critic Andreas Ungerböck and Kazakhstan producer Yelena Larionova. Warsaw Film Festival is a major film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland. The festival has been held every year since 1985. The festival is host to the International Federation of Film Critics awards for enterprising film-making in Central and Eastern Europe. The second prize that Harmony Lessons gained was the Special Mentions award at the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent. The festival was created in 1974. It takes place every year in October. The film festival is famous for its focus on film music, with the World Soundtrack Awards as the highlight. Harmony Lessons of Emir Baigazin won a Silver Bear at Berlinale for the Artistic Achievement of its cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev and also got the prize of the Morgen Post newspaper. Harmony Lessons won the special jury prize for the Best Filmmaker’s Debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and the Grand-Prix of the Switzerland Film Festival in Basel. The film also received The Best Director award at the 3d International Sakhalin Film Festival On the Edge. At present Emir Baigazin is working on his new project The Wounded Angel that was selected for production and distribution funding by the international Berlinale Residency fellowship program.