Founded in 1987 by director Eldar Guliyev, National Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, “Debut” Film Studios is a production company supported by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan. Relaunched in 2020 the studio primarily focuses on the production of debut short and feature films, international co-productions, promotion of Azerbaijan’s motion picture art internationally, as well as educational programs, such as INTERACT.
INTERACT is an educational laboratory curated by “Debut” Film Studios. It is designed to support film students and aspiring filmmakers from Azerbaijan through training, development, production, post-production, distribution and funding opportunities.
The first phase of the program, INTERACT ONLINE, is a digital platform offering a hands-on educational link between young filmmakers and renowned international industry professionals via a series of online masterclasses. All masterclasses will be available both in original and Azerbaijani languages.
Further stages of the program include campus workshops and events, which will be updated according to COVID-19 situation. Consistent attendance of INTERACT ONLINE qualifies participant accreditation in the upcoming INTERACT events.
INTERACT ONLINE is proud to announce the first 3 of our 9 prominent international lecturers:
Anna Gudkova is the creative producer of TNT “Premier” streaming platform, editor, curator of festival programs, creator and curator of the Pitching section of Kinotavr film festival. Program Director and co-founder of the “Kultburo” Educational Center. Member of the jury of several Russian and international film festivals, pitching coach of a number of Russian and foreign educational programs. Held the first pitching of web-projects in Russia within the framework of the Motion Film Festival (2017).
Andrey Zvyagintsev is an internationally acclaimed Russian screenwriter and director, author of sensational films including “The Return”, “Elena”, “Leviathan” and others. Zvyagintsev won the ‘Golden Lion’ award at the Venice Film Festival 2003, ‘Best Screenplay’ award at the ‘Cannes International Film Festival’ 2014, the ‘Golden Globe’ for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ and was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ in 2015. With only 5 feature films to date Andrei Zvyagintsev has already become one of the most respected directors in Russian and international cinema.
Matthieu Darras is the director of Pop Up Film Residency that he founded in 2017. Previously, he founded & directed the European Network NISI MASA (2002-2012), and later on co-founded and was the artistic director of the TorinoFilmLab (2008-2018). A writer for the film magazine Positif (1998-2016), Matthieu Darras has been working as festival programmer, notably for the Cannes Critics’ Week (2005-2011) and the San Sebastian Film Festival (since 2010). He co-founded First Cut Lab in 2015 and serves as Director.
INTERACT ONLINE puts its wide network of experts to the service of the largest possible audience, however the number of participants for INTERACT ONLINE is limited! For that reason, we require an online registration at www.debutfilms.az/interact.
Upon accreditation participants will receive a ZOOM link to join the aforementioned masterclasses.
