Born in 1984 in Kazakhstan, Emir Baigazin graduated from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts in 2009. In 2008, Baigazin participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. His debut feature, Harmony Lessons (2013), later premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. It also won a High Commendation from APSA for Achievement in Directing. He followed with The Wounded Angel (2016) and The River (2018), the final film in a trilogy. Baigazin was a recipient of the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund in 2016 with The River and it recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Horizons Award for Best Director.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
