The birth of Kazakh cinema begins with the film Amangeldy, released in 1938. It was the first experience of creating a national film. "Amangeldy" became a huge event in the cultural life - the audience, leaving the auditorium, again queued up for tickets to the next show.
In 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, Alma-Ata became the cinematographic capital of the country. It was here that the Mosfilm and Lenfilm studios were evacuated, and the Alma-Ata studio of feature films was founded.
At that time four out of five Soviet films were shot in Alma-Ata. About 23 full-length features and 10 short films were made during the war.
That year 41 the first Kazakh school of cinema actor was opened, and was headed by Grigory L. Roshal. The head of the department of directing was Sergey Mikhailovich Eisenstein, a famous director.
In the sixties, several poignant films about the war appeared in Kazakh cinematography, such as: "The Tale of a Mother" (1963), "Land of the Fathers" (1966)
Shaken Aimanov was a man of incredible talent, an improvisational artist, theater director, and actor. Without him, Kazakh cinematography would have been unthinkable.
He started his epic directing career in '54, with a performance "A Poem about Love". Later he directed a number of outstanding films, including the musical comedy "Our Dear Doctor", "Aldar Kose", "Land of Fathers", and "Ataman's End". Aimanov was not afraid to experiment and was amazingly good in every genre! Comedy, drama or historical detective - he succeeded in everything!
Kazakhfilm studio, a street in Almaty, Shakenaken's Stars" film festival is named after him.
Shaken Aimanov is a titan of Kazakh cinema, a people's favorite, and there is a reason for all this. After all, such films as "Our Dear Doctor" (1957), "Ataman's End" (1970), "Angel in the Skullcap" (1968) rightfully gained a cult status.
Among historical adventure films, the above-mentioned film "The End of Ataman" by Sh. Aimanov deserves special mention: the script was written by A. Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky and E. Tropinin. And also E. Urazbayev's film "Trans-Siberian Express", which is a kind of sequel to Sh. Aimanov's film, where the hero from "Ataman's End" now acts in Manchuria. Such prominent representatives of Kazakh cinematography as Abdulla Karsakbaev, Mazhit Begalin, and Sultan Khodzhikov made their films during this period. As a whole, one can say that the filmmakers of the 1960s shaped the face of Kazakh "classics". Cinematography of the Soviet period was a starting point for the development of cinema during the Soviet Rebuilding period, and later in the independent Kazakhstan. In 1967, Kazakhstan started producing animated films. The first Kazakh animated film was "Why the swallow has horns in its tail" by Haidarov. In those years it was common to release one or two films a year for children and teenagers. The most famous are "My Name is Kozha" (A. Karsakbaev), "Alpamys Goes to School" (A. Karsakbaev), "Shock and Cher" (director K. Kassymbekov), "At the Outpost 'Red Stones'" (director Sh. Beisembaev), "My House on Green Hills" (A. Suleyeva).
The next period for Kazakh cinematography was the Rebuilding period: these films reflected the realities of that time. A lot of young independent filmmakers appeared during this period, and they have become the representatives of the Kazakh "new wave" - the yesterday's students of Solovyov's studio in VGIK. The Needle (1988) director: R. Nugmanov.
During this period, Kazakh cinema became known in Europe. The directors presented their films at various international film festivals. 1989 brought first prizes at prestigious international film festivals to Kazakh filmmakers: the film "Touch" was shown in the contest of Nantes Film Festival, "Wolfman Among Men" - in Frankfurt-am-Main and in Lisbon, the premiere of "The Fish in Love" was held in New York. Later the picture D. Omirbaev's "Cardiogram" was screened in France for two months; S. Narymbetov's "Life of a Young Accordionist" received six prizes, headed by the Georges Sadoul Award of the French Academy; and "Fara" by A. Karpikov received a prize for the best male role at the Moscow Film Festival.
During this period, questions were raised about one's own identity. All those topics that for years could not be spoken about because of harsh Soviet ideology (the period of collectivization, the years of Stalin repression, the uprising of 1986, and so on) were reflected in the films of this period. For example, such films as "Surzhekei - Angel of Death", "Life of a Young Accordionist", "Ogre" show the unconcealed reality in which the people lived. Particular attention after independence was paid to the restoration of historical justice ("The Grief of Otrar", "Batyr Bayan", "The Young Years of Abay", "Kozy Korpesh and Bayan Sulu", "The Youth of Zhambyl"...).
The period of the first years of independence was extremely important for national cinematography.
Nowadays, the viewer has more opportunities to watch films than it was in the 90s. The number of films being made has increased considerably. More and more new names are appearing, which are also known outside of Kazakhstan.
Kazakh cinema is now one of the leaders in the region. It was in Kazakhstan that the "Nomad" super-project appeared. Here, along with the state-run Kazakhfilm studio, independent production studios started operating, which filmed films in serious co-production with leading Western producers, such as "Tulpan", "Racketeer", "Aynur", "Mongol", "The Middle Battle".
The filmmakers of independent Kazakhstan, continuing the traditions of the "New Wave", are not afraid to make daring films, raising contemporary issues. Nowadays, Kazakhstani films bear historical and national values.
In 2019, for the first time in Kazakhstan, the Law "On Cinematography" was adopted.
This was necessary to create conditions at the legislative level to improve the quality and competitiveness of domestic films, accessibility of film exhibition services for the population, transparency and investment attractiveness of cinematography, growth of prestige and recognition of Kazakh cinema abroad. To implement this law, the State Center for Supporting National Cinema was established in 2019 as the sole regulator of state funds aimed at the development of cinematography, and the operator for providing state financial support to private film companies. .
Before the law was passed, all films were fully financed from the national budget, including distribution, and the only beneficiary of public funds was the Kazakfilm studio named after Shaken Aimanov. Today's funding scheme has a clear gradation of films by amount of funding:
In 2019, 444 films were released in the country, of which 45 were Kazakh films, accounting for 10% of total theater distribution, and 399 were foreign films, accounting for 90% of total theater distribution. In 2020 there were 273 films released, of which 36 were Kazakh films, accounting for 13% of total box office receipts, and 237 were foreign films, which made up 87% of total box office receipts. In 2021, 354 films were released, including 31 Kazakh films, which made up 9% of total cinema exhibition, and 323 foreign films, which made up 91% of the total.
Today, thanks to the law passed, Russian filmmakers not only have the opportunity to receive state financial support for the production of films for many domestic companies, but also to identify new promising young filmmakers, including directors, screenwriters, producers, cameramen, actors, and composers.
Today, there is a lot of activity among young filmmakers in the domestic film industry. For the period 2019 - 2021 at the expense of the republican budget 72 films were produced, of which young filmmakers realized 33 film projects, including 23 films - feature, 6 documentaries and 4 animated films.
Since 2019, Kazakhstan's legislation stipulates a procedure for granting subsidies in the field of cinematography to help attract major foreign film companies to shoot in our country, given the provision of subsidies (rebate) for foreign investors. The subsidy is given to a foreign legal entity by reimbursing up to thirty percent of the cost of goods, works and services associated with the production of a film in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is attractive to foreign partners due to its diverse natural landscape, where it is possible to shoot in all four seasons.
The modernization of "Kazakhfilm" named after Shaken Aimanov started in 2021, which should be completed in 2023.
Kazakhstan cinema, based on the brand of the "Kazakhfilm" film studio, has a great potential to promote domestic film products to the international level. Domestic films are gaining more and more recognition at international festivals (Cannes, Berlin film festivals and others).
In 2022 the creative association "Kazakhanimation" was established at the "Kazakhfilm" film studio, which aims to modernize the national animation industry and to ensure conditions for reaching the international level on the quality of creation and content of animated films with national colors, and also to increase production of short and full-length animated films. In 2022, "Kazakh Animation" produced 20 animation projects.