Embassy of the United States

Embassy News

Film Experts Discuss Mongol and the Oscars

Professor Jane Knox-Voina.

With Kazakhstan’s first-ever nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, the excitement surrounding Mongol is palpable.  The Embassy Branch Office in Almaty hosted a digital video conference on February 20, in advance of the Academy Awards ceremony, to provide journalists timely analysis for newspapers and television broadcasts.

Professor Jane Knox-Voina from Bowdoin College (Maine) and Professor Gulnara Abikeyeva from Kazakhstan Institute of the Arts provided insightful commentary about Mongol, its prospects to win, and the history of the Oscars for 24 Kazakhstani journalists. The 60-minute session featured a panel discussion as well as open questions and answer for the journalists. 

Professors Abikeyeva and Knox-Voina are both Fulbright alumnae.  They first worked together when Abikeyeva was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Bowdoin in 2002.  Then Knox-Voina came to Kazakhstan as U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Abikeyeva's institute in 2005-6.  Abikeyeva and Knox-Voina have “performed” together for many for the media and general public at film festivals, lecture halls, and on television in Kazakhstan and the United States.