2023
Tashkent International Film Festival-XIII
The Tashkent International Film Festival was first held in 1968 and took place on a regular basis, once every two years until 1990. From year to year did the noble slogan "For Peace, Social Progress and Freedom of Peoples" determine the main goal of this event - popularization and promotion of the best cinema works of Asia, Africa and Latin America, facilitating the artistic development of these countries and strengthening friendship among peoples. It is noteworthy that Latin American countries joined the Festival only in 1976. The program of the First Film Festival included films from 39 countries; the Festival welcomed participants and guests from 49 national cinematography studios. Each time the Festival became an important social and political event on an international scale, which is why the interest toward this event grew from year to year.
Cinematography art of 85 countries of the world, including 22 Asian, 34 African and 11 Latin American countries was presented at the Fifth Tashkent Film Festival. Feature films from New Zealand and Australia were presented for the official screening for the first time. At the same time, such international organizations as the UN, UNESCO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Patriotic Forces of Chile actively participated in the work of the Film Festival.
In 1978, the Festival marked a new step in its development. For the first time, the official screening program included films from the countries which could not even dream of their own cinema before. Among them were Burundi, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Zambia, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and others. Thus, the Tashkent Film Festival became not just a venue for premiere screenings of films, but a platform for increasing the popularity of cinema, expanding creative and business contacts among filmmakers of the Afro-Asian and Latin American regions, paving the way for the original cinema of three continents to converge with European cinema.
Our wonderful capital Tashkent was awarded the noble title "City of Friendship" because it became a real platform for rapprochement and cooperation for numerous countries and peoples. In 1958, Tashkent already gathered writers from Afro-Asian countries at a round table. It was after this large-scale event that the concept of "the Spirit of Tashkent" came into being, symbolizing the goodwill for cooperation, solidarity of progressive artists in the struggle for awareness of their social and political activities in the modern world.
2021 Tashkent International Film Festival promises to be the largest cultural event in Uzbekistan. New slogan "For peace, enlightenment and progress!" has predetermined the format of the upcoming event. The Festival will appear in its updated version, with a number of absolutely unique solutions and a nostalgic vibe in the form of renovation of the Festival activities of the 60s, 70s and 80s, thus bringing all the best features together.