Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Within the framework of the prestigious Berlinale Film Festival, the National Film Commission of Uzbekistan reached concrete agreements with companies from several countries, including the UK, Sweden, France and the Baltic countries.

Based on these agreements, Uzbekistan is expected to receive US$5-6 million in revenue from promoting film locations in 2020-2021. For the second year in a row, as part of the implementation of the President’s Decree on the further development of the tourism sector with the support of the State Committee for Tourism Development, the Union of Youth and the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Germany, the National Film Commission of Uzbekistan takes part in the European Film Market as part of the Berlinale Film Festival, where on 20 February opened the national pavilion.

This year, 200 stands from more than 110 countries with more than 20,000 visitors were exhibited at the film market. “Within the framework of the international film market, bilateral meetings were held with foreign film companies and international media organizations. As a result of meetings and negotiations with interested filmmakers within the Berlinale framework, representatives of European film companies are planning a trip to Uzbekistan to select locations and explore the possibilities of filming in the country,” said Mukhlisa Azizova, chairman of the National Film Commission of Uzbekistan.

In order to promote domestic film locations, the film commission has entered into an agreement with the chief manager of the London international film location exhibition Focus Location Guide, Jean-Friedrick, and already in October this year, the local managers of Hollywood and the UK will visit our country. Among those interested are the director from Sweden and the producer of the Swedish film production company Smartfilm, Tua Broderick, who plan to shoot a film project with a budget of US$3 million in Uzbekistan and have already planned a scouting tour to Uzbekistan to select locations.

Producer from Greece Colin Pons is already planning filming in Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent as part of a major documentary on the Silk Road. A discussion with the leadership of the international holding “Star Media” in order to organize the filming of the historical film “Sultan” in our country has already moved to the second stage of negotiations. Many are interested in domestic film locations and from the Baltic countries. Latvian director Ramunas Skikas was impressed by the benefits of filming in Uzbekistan and plans to shoot a fantastic action movie in Surkhandarya region.

One of the most fruitful was a meeting with representatives of the prestigious KFTW UK with an English-language online platform covering the entire world film industry, as well as a circulation of 50,000 issues a year, including all major film festivals. The next issue is expected to publish about Uzbekistan with information about the country and a photograph of local locations and historical sites.

Uzbekistan will also be included in the international cinema database Etalents.pro, where our actors and locations will be promoted in the international arena among the countries of Central Asia, which was due to an agreement with the general director of the service Laura Ergaliyeva. At a meeting in the Indian pavilion with representatives of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India, Uzbekistan was invited to the Goa Film Festival to participate in the Film Bazaar, where Uzbekistan will organize a national stand and presentation to attract Indian film companies to Uzbekistan for filming.

Active negotiations were also held with representatives of film companies in France, Great Britain and India regarding the filming of high-budget film projects on the territory of Uzbekistan, and details regarding film projects will soon be provided. As a result of the Berlin negotiations, in the implementation of the above projects, the inflow of funds into the country in 2020-2021 will amount to about 5-6 million US dollars.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Federal Republic of Germany Nabijon Kasimov also visited the national pavilion, where during the conversation strategies for attracting film companies for cooperation and filming on the territory of our republic were discussed.

In the modern world, cinema tourism is becoming one of the freshest and most interesting destinations in the travel industry, and also acts as an effective driver for the development of new products: cinema museums, tours to places of filming, as well as displays of existing attractions. Uzbekistan has enormous potential and we must develop this type of tourism. We need to focus all our efforts to attract film investors to the republic and to achieve this goal, the Uzbek Embassy in Germany is ready to assist in targeted cooperation with each film production company in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, said the ambassador.