Asian World Film Festival


The Asian World Film Festival is a film festival based in Los Angeles, California. In its inaugural year, the festival ran from October 26 to November 2, 2015. The Festival is an initiative by Kyrgyz public figure and filmmaker, Sadyk Sher-Niyaz. The 2016 festival dates are 24 October – 1 November 2016.

Founding

Sher-Niyaz founded the festival in late 2014, after his own experience in running a campaign for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards. Sher-Niyaz was the director of the Kyrgyz submission,, which according to The Hollywood Reporter was predicted one of the top 15 contenders.
Sher-Niyaz told TheWrap that he created the festival to help other Asian filmmakers in their Oscar campaigns. ″I created the Asian World Film Festival to fill a void that I noticed was missing in America. There is a wealth of underrated filmmakers from our region that deserve recognition and this festival was designed to champion and promote them,″ festival chairman and creator Sadyk Sher-Niyaz said.