Uzbekistan Showbiz Latest News and Updates

The baby of incestuous couple born 'genetically compromised' tragically died just hours being welcomed into the world. The little boy was said to have suffered from numerous birth defects due to his parents being brother and sister.

Naman Ramachandran The late Pema Tseden‘s “Snow Leopard” (China) won the top prize, the Golden Cyclo, at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday. The film, which previously won awards at the Tokyo and Hainan festivals, also won Vesoul’s National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO) jury prize and actor Tseten Tashi scored a jury special mention. Pema Tseden (aka Wanmacaidan) died in May last year, age 53.

Melbourne City want to take flop Celtic star Marco Tilio back to their club on loan when the Australian transfer window reopens. Celtic reportedly paid £1.5million to land the winger from Melbourne City this summer, where he won three A-League titles in a row.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Discovery-owned Eurosport has acquired streaming rights in 54 countries to Olympic refugee documentary “We Dare to Dream” by Waad Al-Kateab, the Oscar-nominated Syrian director of “For Sama.” “We Dare to Dream” is the story of the refugee Olympic team that competed at the 2020 games in Tokyo, which featured stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to safety in host nations across the world. It’s told through the personal prism of Al-Kateab while she is coming to terms with the reality that she can never return to Aleppo, where she shot “For Sama.” The doc premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October.

Christopher Vourlias Three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, an emerging generation of filmmakers born and raised in the independent countries of Central Asia is giving an exhilarating charge to the region’s cinema and helping to put their unheralded industries on the map. Leading Kazakh film critic Gulnara Abikeyeva says these “children of independence” are bringing a “new attitude” to the screen and giving a jolt of energy to emerging industries that for decades were under Moscow’s thumb.

A cycle-hating Scottish couple completed an epic around-the-world biking fundraiser in aid of a children’s hospice yesterday.

Christopher Vourlias The first edition of the Alternativa Film Project wrapped with an award ceremony this weekend in Almaty, the cultural capital of Kazakhstan, with filmmakers from Central Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region being feted as part of a new initiative launched by the California-based tech company inDrive, best known for its ride-hailing app. The event marked a successful close to what organizers hope will be an ongoing non-profit initiative aimed at supporting emerging filmmakers from under-developed film industries.

EXCLUSIVE: Female and non-binary filmmaker-focused international training initiative Circle has kicked off its inaugural Circle Fiction Orbit initiative at a meeting in Montenegro and unveiled the participants.

Naman Ramachandran Tatino Films, a French production and consultancy company involved in industry events in Asia and Europe, has teamed with Kazakhstan-based Alternativa Film Project and the Philippines’ QCinema Project Market for three film residencies. The partnership will yield two Pop Up film residencies called the Pop Up Alternativa Awards for filmmakers from Central Asia and one Pop Up QCFC (Quezon City Film Commission) x QCinema Award for Southeast Asian filmmakers to develop their upcoming film projects.

Taylor Swift is the most translated artist in the world, according to a new study.The results were found as part of a recent study conducted by WordFinderX, which analysed data on 627,000 translations of 277,000 songs from more than 11,700 musical artists.The songs were ranked by the number of times that they had been translated from their original language, and artists were also ranked based on how many times their songs had been translated. Non-English-speaking artists were also ranked separately.Of the results, it was shown that Taylor Swift was the most translated artist globally, with fans translating 365 of Swift’s songs across 57 languages – the equivalent of nearly 5,000 translations in total.K-pop stars BTS came in second place due to their popularity and Korean lyrics, and Lana Del Rey and The Beatles came in third and fourth place respectively.Others on the list included Céline Dion, Julio Inglesias, Shakira and One Direction.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Vietnam-based sales agent Skyline Media has closed multi-territory deals for two of its current titles “The Soul Reaper” and “Vietnamese Horror Story.” The deals follow Skyline’s recent trip to Busan’s ACFM and come ahead of its participation as exhibitor at a string of further final quarter sales events – Tokyo’s TIFFCOM, Santa Monica’s American Film Market and Taipei’s Taiwan Creative Content Fest. Folk horror film “The Soul Reaper,” currently in the final stages of post-production, was licensed to GaragePlay for Taiwan and to Westec Media Limited (WML) for Laos, Cambodia and nine other Southeast Asian territories. The film, adapted from Thao Trang’s best-selling horror novel “Lunar New Year in Hell Village” (aka “Tet O Lang Dia Nguc”), is set to be released in Vietnam cinemas on 08 December. GaragePlay is one of Taiwan’s leading distributors, and recently handles releases of “Suzume,” “John Wick: Chapter 4” and “Someday or One Day.” WML is the biggest content distributor in Cambodia and has distributed more than 1,000 titles theatrically since its establishment.

Kevin Spacey was rushed to hospital this week after experiencing a health scare in Uzbekistan.During a speech at the Tashkent International Film Festival’s closing ceremony on Monday (October 2), the actor recalled having symptoms of a heart attack earlier in the day while visiting the Afrasiyab Museum in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.“I was looking at these extraordinary murals on the walls, and I suddenly felt my entire left arm go numb for about eight seconds,” Spacey said in the speech (via TMZ).The actor said he underwent a “variety of tests” including an MRI, with doctors later giving him the all-clear.He added: “Now everything turned out to be completely normal and I am of course grateful that it’s not anything more serious.”Spacey explained how the incident had made him “take a moment” to reflect on his outlook on life.“It also made me really take a moment and think to myself how fragile life is for all of us, and how important it is that we come together, that we support each other, that we do what we can for the next generation,” the actor said.In July, Spacey was cleared of nine sexual offence charges in London after a four-week trial. He was accused of the charges by four men, in incidents alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2013.The actor is set to make his acting comeback in the upcoming thriller Control, where he has a key voice role.

Kevin Spacey thought he was having a heart attack during a recent visit to Uzbekistan for a film festival.

Kevin Spacey revealed he was rushed to the hospital with fears of a potential heart attack.

The Sun.The New York Post has reached out to Spacey’s reps for comment.The “House of Cards” actor was inside the Afrasiyab Museum, located at the historical site of Afrasiyab, one of the largest archaeological sites in the world when he felt his “entire left arm go numb for about eight seconds.”The actor was then rushed to the Innova Diagnostic Clinic, where he was examined by doctors and given an MRI scan.Despite fears that he may have suffered a heart attack, doctors gave Spacey a clean bill of health.“Mr Spacey was taken to a medical centre over health concerns,” a source close to the actor said according to The Sun. He was treated professionally by doctors and staff and found to have no problem with his heart.” Later that evening, Spacey returned to the 15th Tashkent International Film Festival in Uzbekistan and appeared to be in good spirits.

Kevin Spacey‘s arm went numb this week for about 8 seconds, so he was rushed to the hospital for a potential heart attack.

Benjamin Cremaschi might be prepared to side-step his conversation with Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi when making a key decision over his international future.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sunday,” by Uzbekistan-based director Shokir Kholikov, was Thursday named best film in the Asian New Talent section of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival. The Asian New Talent Awards are called Golden Goblet Awards, but are separate from the festival’s official competition section, and favor new and emerging talent. The main competition jury will hand out its Golden Goblets on Sunday. The best director prize in the Asian New Talent section was shared by two helmers: China’s Luo Dong won for “May.” So too did Kazakhstan’s Aisultan Seit for “Qash.” Luo previously attended the Shanghai festival’s project market ten years ago and has since completed one other film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Swiss-based, Chinese-owned Infront Sports & Media would handle broadcast right sales in much of Asia for the next series of Summer and Winter games. The deal covers 22 territories including Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – but not China, Japan or South Korea, and runs 2026-2032. That means it will cover the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Summer games. The 2030 Winter Olympics, which have yet to be allocated a host, and all Youth Olympic Games during this period will also be covered.

Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has unveiled the major competition selections for its 25th edition (June 9-18), which will be the first to be held in a fully physical format with international guests since before the pandemic. 

EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles-based Russian-Kazakh director and producer Timur Bekmambetov has secured Turkish backing for his animated feature about iconic Middle Eastern and Asian folk hero Hodja Nasreddin.

Korean filmmaker Lee Jeong-hong’s A Wild Roomer and Shivamma, from India’s Jaishankar Aryar, were the winners of the New Currents Awards at the close of an encouragingly busy Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 5-14).

China still has much to gain from its current relationship with Russia even as the invasion of Ukraine drags on, turning Russia into an international pariah and threatening to rub off on China’s reputation as well.  "China has, in effect, doubled down on its support for the Putin war effort, and we saw this, for instance, last month when China's third rank leader went to Moscow, spoke to the State Duma, and in very clear terms, expressed Beijing's support for Russia," Gordon Change, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," told Fox News Digital.  "Then, [we] see Jinping himself when he was in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, actually confirmed that endorsement," Chang added. "The only conclusion that we can come to is that Beijing is not backing away from Russia."  The China and Russia dynamic has remained a troubling one for the United States since even before the invasion of Ukraine started in March 2022.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer Andrea Iervolino (“Waiting for the Barbarians”) has acquired a controlling stake in central London’s Mercato Metropolitano food market and teamed with British music producer David Tickle’s Tickle Entertainment on a doc series set there about global food culture. Iervolino, whose Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE) company produces feature films including Bobby Moresco’s upcoming “Lamborghini,” is also the founder of innovative digital entertainment platform TaTaTu, a social media platform that uses a form of rewards points called TTU Coins. TaTaTu recently acquired a controlling stake in London’s Mercato Metropolitano from its founder Andrea Rasca who in 2016 established this pioneering community market as a space for social exchange and environmental sustainability. The Mercato is now being used as the location for an upcoming docu-series chronicling the journey of four chefs who sought refuge in the United Kingdom respectively from Syria, Namibia, Nepal, and Uzbekistan.

The latest piece of the international Warner Bros. Discovery management puzzle has slotted into place, as the wider reshaping of the business continues. WBD General Manager Warner Bros. Discovery CEE, Baltics and Middle East (CEE MENAT) Jamie Cooke, who took on his post in June, has unveiled his team. Senior roles have gone to the likes of Lee Hobbs and long-serving Warner Bros. sales exec Roni Patel.

Naman Ramachandran The Taliban regime has banned news broadcasts from a number of international media companies including BBC, DW and Voice of America (VOA), in Afghanistan.The BBC’s news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek have been ordered off air, while German media organization DW’s programming will not be rebroadcast by Afghan partners. Specifically, DW’s political talk show “Aashti” in Dari and in Pashto on local partner ToloNews and science programs broadcast on Ariana TV and Shamshad are the ones affected, according to DW.Meanwhile Taliban information and culture ministry spokesperson Abdul Haq Hammad told news agency dpa that VOA’s television broadcasts on Afghan channels have been ceased, but radio transmissions continue.

Michael Nordine authorAnyone who’s ever scoffed at a company referring to its employees as family will immediately hear alarm bells ringing when Zhanna (Lyudmila Vasilyeva), the matriarch who runs Produkty 24, tells her workers they aren’t just employees, they’re her children. It won’t take long for “Convenience Store” to justify that skepticism and then some: A highlight of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama program, Michael Borodin’s look at an Uzbek immigrant working in the Moscow outskirts is all the more disturbing for the fact that it’s based on a real case of human trafficking.The marriage of Mukkahabat (a gently devastating Zukhara Sanzysbay) to a fellow worker is our entree into this world, but it’s hardly a storybook wedding.

Alissa Simon Film CriticUzbekistan-born Michael Borodin makes a searing feature debut with the Russia-Turkey-Slovenia co-production “Convenience Store,” a story of modern slavery in Moscow, taking places under the noses of thousands of indifferent witnesses. Demonstrating his interest in pressing social issues, Borodin’s Berlinale Panorama selection was inspired by his personal experience as an illegal immigrant to Russia and the 2012 case of the “Golyanovo slaves,” which is now making its way to the European Court of Human Rights.Developed through the Next Step program of Cannes’ Critics’ Week and other co-production markets, the film, like the case of the Golyanovo slaves, centers on citizens of the former Soviet Republics, who are illegal migrants to Moscow and forced to work long hours, unpaid, in 24/7 convenience shops, without being able to leave the premises.

Naman Ramachandran Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas. “Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury.

2022 Winter Olympics are underway! The opening ceremony was held on Friday, at Beijing's National Stadium, which is also known as the «Bird's Nest,» and signaled the official start of the Games.The Parade of Nations, the part of the ceremony that highlights each competing nation in the Games, featured many standout moments including a shirtless skeleton competitor, a long-awaited moment for Jamaica, and a Ralph Lauren-clad Team USA.While the U.S. counted its second-largest Olympic delegation in history, other countries had just one athlete set to compete on their behalf. It all came to a close with an epic torch lighting that differed from years past.Keep reading for the five biggest moments from the opening ceremony.With Tonga's Pita Taufatofua sitting out the Olympics for the first time since 2014, fans worried that the cross-country skier's absence would mean they'd be deprived of a shirtless, oiled-up athlete during the Parade of Nations.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Convenience Store,” by director Michael Borodin, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.Borodin’s feature debut follows an Uzbek immigrant working at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. As with the rest of the immigrants at the store, she’s forced to work without pay and to endure mental and physical abuse, until the day she overcomes her fear and takes her fate into her own hands.Based on real-life events and the active legal cases of immigrants in Russia, “Convenience Store” captures the horrors of modern slavery in a visceral blend of realism, documentary-style filmmaking and grand-scale cinema.

Security camera footage from a zoo in Tashkent, Uzbekistan has gone viral worldwide this week after it showed a little girl being dropped down into a bear enclosure at the animal park in the city.

Naman Ramachandran France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas kicks off Feb. 1 with a gala screening of Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 2001 Cannes winner “Kandahar” and will conclude on Feb.

A mum has been arrested after a tot was hurled 16ft into a brown bear's cage at a zoo.

New Celtic signings Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate are free to debut against Hibs after being removed from Japan's Kirin Cup squad.

Jessica Kiang It can take a moment to adjust to the quiet, grave rhythms of the impossibly gorgeous “2000 Songs of Farida,” where the imagemaking is so resplendent as to be disorienting, given how accustomed we are to a cinema in which the pictures primarily serve the storytelling.