Astana Internet Stars is a Kazakh queer drama exploring hypocrisy, repression, and identity in a society torn between public morality and private truth. Written, directed, and produced by Assel Aushakimova, the film follows Nurlan, a high-ranking Deputy Minister of Culture, whose career and family life spiral out of control when a compromising video exposes the double life he has been hiding.
Aushakimova, Kazakhstan’s only openly queer filmmaker, brings her signature boldness and irony to this story of political manipulation and personal crisis. A graduate of the Busan Asian Film School and Berlinale Talents, she has earned international acclaim with her debut Welcome to the USA (AFI Fest 2019, NewFest 2020) and second feature Bikechess (Tribeca 2024, Best International Narrative Feature). Astana Internet Stars continues her exploration of identity and conformity within Kazakhstan’s patriarchal structures, marking the first Kazakh feature film with a gay male protagonist.
Produced by 24 FPS (Kazakhstan) and spearheaded by Dana Sabitova and Assel Aushakimova, the film holds a Special Pitch Award from FilmFestival Cottbus and received an Honourable Mention for the VFF Talent Highlight Award at the Berlinale Talent Project Market 2024. With an estimated budget of 594,000 EUR and 26,000 EUR already in place, the production is currently seeking European coproducers (particularly from Germany, France, Poland, the Baltics, Romania, and the Czech Republic), as well as sales and postproduction partners.
Producer:
24 FPS (Kazakhstan)
Assel Aushakimova: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Credits:
Director: Assel Aushakimova
Scriptwriter: Assel Aushakimova
Producers: Dana Sabitova, Assel Aushakimova
Attention Whores is a Slovak/Czech coming-of-age tragicomedy that unflinchingly examines friendship, sexuality, and power dynamics in a provincial high-school world where cruelty and laughter intertwine. Written and directed by Alica Bednáriková, the film follows two 16-year-old best friends whose reckless bet to seduce their gym teacher spirals into obsession, betrayal, and exposure. With a vivid blend of dark humor and emotional realism, Attention Whores captures the volatility of adolescence, where desire, shame, and defiance collide.
Bednáriková, currently a participant of the Cannes Film Festival Residency, made her mark with the award-winning shorts Boredom (2020, EnergaCAMERIMAGE; IGRIC Award for Best Short Film) and Liquid Bread (2022, Cannes La Cinef, Karlovy Vary, kviff.com, Clermont-Ferrand). Her voice, bold, ironic, and emotionally precise, defines a new generation of Central European women filmmakers exploring female adolescence without sentimentality.
Produced by Nutprodukce (Czech Republic) and nutprodukcia (Slovakia), the film is led by producers Valeria Borkovcová, Tomáš Hrubý, and Jakub Viktorín.
Supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA, Attention Whores is planned as a 90-minute digital feature with an estimated budget of 1,155,000 EUR, of which 109,000 EUR is already secured. The team is seeking coproducers, financiers, pre-sales, and sales partners, aiming for a 2027 shoot.
The project continues Nutprodukce’s tradition of socially engaged, stylistically daring filmmaking, exemplified by works such as Burning Bush, Wasteland, and Suspicion.
Producer:
nutprodukces.r.o. (Czech Republic)
Valeria Borkovcová
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Credits:
Director: Alica Bednáriková
Scriptwriter: Alica Bednáriková
Producers: Valeria Borkovcová, Tomáš Hrubý, Jakub Viktorín
Beginners is a Lithuanian existential dramedy about three generations of women confronting memory, loss, and uncertainty during a family holiday on Lithuania’s tense border with Russia. Written and directed by Birutė Kapustinskaitė, the film unfolds as Saulė, her mother, and grandmother struggle through personal crises and family friction while the search for a missing boy turns their seaside retreat into a microcosm of national anxiety.
Beneath postcard beauty and dry humour, Beginners explores how history lingers in bodies and landscapes alike, and how each generation faces the same question: how to live with the past without being consumed by it.
Kapustinskaitė, an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter honoured twice with Lithuania’s Golden Cross Award, brings her mastery of dialogue and layered female characters to her first feature after two award-winning shorts, Mothers (2021, Vilnius IFF) and The Nominees (2023, Jagrand Film Festival). Currently heading the Screenwriting Department at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, she continues to blend humour and poignancy in stories that reveal both the personal and political dimensions of everyday life.
Produced by Smart Casual (Lithuania), the project is led by Rūta Petronytė and Justinas Pocius, with support from the Lithuanian Film Centre and Creative Europe – MEDIA (mini-slate). With an estimated budget of 1,250,000 EUR and 105,000 EUR already secured, the team is seeking coproducers, sales, broadcasters, distributors, and financiers to join the film in late-stage development, ahead of production planned for 2027.
Producer:
Smart Casual (Lithuania)
RūtaPetronytė: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Credits:
Director: Birutė Kapustinskaitė
Scriptwriter: Birutė Kapustinskaitė
Producers: Rūta Petronytė, Justinas Pocius
Bekki is a Kyrgyz coming-of-age drama capturing the pulse of a generation growing up “alone together.” Written and directed by Aygul Bakanova, the film follows 18-year-old Bekki, a dancer in Bishkek, navigating fractured family ties, economic pressures, and the intoxicating yet perilous energy of youth culture. With her mother working abroad and her father dismissing her dreams, Bekki seeks connection through dance, only to confront betrayal, violence, and the fragile hope of freedom. Set against the rhythms of Kyrgyz urban life, Bekki is both a portrait of female resilience and a meditation on self-discovery in a society caught between tradition and transformation.
Bakanova, an alumna of the London Film School and Cannes Cinéfondation Residence, brings a poetic sensibility and emotional precision honed in her acclaimed shorts The Song of the Rain (Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand 2011) and Void (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2014). After a decade of exploring slow-cinema storytelling and documentary forms, she returns to fiction with her most personal film yet, a story rooted in Kyrgyzstan’s complex present, told through movement, silence, and the longing to belong.
Produced by Citylab Production (Kyrgyzstan) and Chingiz Narynov, Bekki is a 90-minute digital drama with an estimated budget of 520,000 EUR, of which 150,000 EUR is already secured. Coproduced by the Kyrgyz National Film Studio, the project seeks coproducers (especially from Germany, France, Norway, or the Netherlands), as well as sales and distribution partners.
Producer:
Citylab Production (Kyrgyzstan)
Chingiz Narynov: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Credits:
Director: Aygul Bakanova
Scriptwriter: Aygul Bakanova
Producer: Chingiz Narynov
