Cinema. Shavkat Karimov - "A New Name in Cinema!"

With good money and a good number of stars, one can produce a good commercial blockbuster. But only a very talented film director is able to create a film masterpiece.

We all know the names of Federico Fellini, Luc Besson, and Steven Spielberg - their excellence in film directing makes all the film-lovers' hearts miss a beat. Their charismatic personalities helped them to create masterpieces, which enslaved hearts of film viewers all around the world. However, each of these shining directors once was just a promising or even unpromising, young and ambitious dreamer. But certainly, they always were unordinary and talented people, being upon the look. By a lucky train of events every one of them had come to his creative success and final recognition.

It is quite brave to compare beginning, young, but unique and gifted artists with those well-known bright names in film directing. On the other hand, being young is no sin, and being unknown is not a stumbling block. When an artist has got a creative power, new vision, and talent, he may become the next Fellini, Besson, or Spielberg.

In the new era of independence, Uzbek film art is facing many difficulties. Althoughit is commonly known that things that everyone will be talking about for many, many years later on - are usually created in difficulties. Maybe, today the connection between East and West (between wisdom and progress) is not that obvious and stable. But tomorrow, the brightest talents, artists of the first water, will be coming from the East, particularly from Asia.

In this context, it is absolutely logical that a very unique and original project named "CINEDICTUM" was created in Uzbekistan. Cinedictum is a newest film form, an independent cine-philosophical genre, and a unique movie language. Cinedictum means a cinematic aphorism. ("cine"-cinematic; "dictum"-aphorism.) It is a short dictum stated in a figurative style by the film medium. Cinedictum is a newest and a very powerful project in film, television and media. Cinedictum project is a collection of fresh, wise, original, and entertaining short films. The project's slogan is: "Cinedictum - A New Word in Cinema!" The project uniqueness is in the ability to tell a wise and entertaining story intensively in a very short time with not a word or moment wasted. According to many film critics and professionals this project contains huge spiritual and commercial potentials. But who is behind this indeed powerful project?

The author of Cinedictum is exactly that one young but gifted artist: SHAVKAT KARIMOV. He could manage to do much regardless of his age. Besides creating and producing the "Cinedictum" project, Shavkat Karimov (a film producer, director, and writer) holds two diplomas: one in International Law (University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED), Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1998) and the other one in Feature Film Directing (All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), Moscow, Russia, 2002.) He speaks Russian, Uzbek, English, French, and Turkish. Shavkat works with hundreds of computer programs; professionally develops and promotes new brands and projects in many areas; proficient in web-design and Internet.

Shavkat - is a many-sided man. His interests include fairly new and innovative things: for instance, TRIZ (the theory of inventive problem solving) or human voice computer processing. He is also fond of: psychology, philosophy, futurology, photography, graphic design, sound effects composing; and new ideas development. He also loves sports (basketball, martial arts, and chess) and learns new creative, marketing, and PR technologies.

In his work and also in person, Shavkat gives the bright and unusual impression. With a look of a waxy person, he possesses a determined character, excellent managerial qualities, and proven leadership skills. At the same time, Shavkat is very sociable and communicable. He has a natural keen sense of humor. He carries on a conversation with anyone very easily. Shavkat is unconditionally very talented and he is positively one of the most talented young filmmakers of the country. It was not for nothing that he was included into the list of most talented youth of Uzbekistan.

Despite the young age, Shavkat's rich experience (he lived and worked in many countries: Belgium, Turkey, France, Russia, United States of America, and some others) has colored his views. Life experience is very important for a film director, and it allowed Shavkat to demonstrate the emotional and semantic parts of human life - deeply, delicately, and correctly. Shavkat was invited to many film festivals of the world. He accomplished a great deal in this concern. Particularly, Shavkat Karimov won the "Best Producer" Award at the "Giggleshorts" International Comedy Short Film Festival in Toronto, (Canada) in 2002 and also was a "2003 Starving Artist Award" nominee in Nashville, Tennessee (USA) in 2003.

Here are some more short film festivals, where Shavkat was invited: Atlanta Urban Mediamakers, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Audience Award); Get Shorty Film Showcase & Tour 2002, New York, NY, USA(non-competition festival traveling across America); Hull International Film Festival, Manchester, United Kingdom (VIP guest); SantaFe 2003 Short Film Festival, Tokyo, Japan (Semi-finalist); Tampere Film Festival, Tampere, Finland (Shavkat's films were entered into the exclusive video archive for the next generation of mobile phones); There were 1300 entries submitted from around the world to the "KINOFILM" - Manchester's International Short Film Festival - the biggest Short Film Festival in the United Kingdom. Only 250 films were selected, 4 of them were Shavkat's Cinedictums.

Shavkat Karimov is the only film director/producer in Uzbekistan, who achieved such a success in the short film art and business. Moreover, this year, his films will be shown on one of America's most reputable and popular TV networks: PBS - in "The Short List" television program, which shows only the best short films from all around the world. Generally, this means that they will be shown all across the US on hundreds of PBS-affiliated TV channels, and even in Canada on "Movieola" TV channel. Shavkat's Cinedictums were also included into the largest world film database online - IMDB.com, which mostly features Hollywood movies, festival winners, and other notable films. "Shavkat's unique approach to short story telling along with his ability for high quality filmmaking has made us at Blip TV proud to have his work as part of our programming. We thank you, Shavkat for sharing with us your vision and talent." - say Paula Montondo and Tiny Caldwell from "Liquid Dano Productions" and "Blip TV" (Nashville, Tennessee (USA.)

Cinedictum films have received many other great reviews from producers, distributors, television programmers, critics, studio executives, agents, festival directors, and other film experts and industry professionals from around the globe: Australia, Canada, Japan, Peru, South Africa, United Kingdom, USA and other countries. Here are just some of them:
"This certainly is a most interesting and well-presented series." - Lorne Freed, Director of Programming & Operations, "CTS" Ontario, Canada;
"I really enjoyed the films. Excellent! The production value is really impressive, both the visualization and the audio. Such a delicate touch!" - Brent Quinn, Recent Chairman for The South African Script Writers Association, Currently the President of "Quintet Productions", Johannesburg, South Africa;
"Cinedictum as a concept is quite interesting. Cinedictum definitely has it"s own unique style." - Joe Catoe, film critic, "The Dog Pile" film magazine, Cincinnati, OH (USA);
"The films are some of the cleanest of I have seen - solid production value that allows one to focus on the story." - Benjamin Reneker, President of "ReelMind" (largest film community in California), Monterey, CA (USA);
"They have much in common with the work of Chaplin. Congratulations on your well-done works." - Mitchell Block, President of "Direct Cinema Ltd.", Santa Monica, CA (USA);
"These are very short stories, which explain themselves, without language, on the human condition. I find the short format very interesting and these stories are beautifully done and easily available to markets." - Jerome Poynton, "Swiss Effects", New York, NY (USA).

Some professional film magazines in USA have published their articles telling about the phenomenon of Cinedictum. For example, "The Dogpile" (a movie magazine by "Malamute Entertainment, Inc.", Houston, TX) has published the article on Cinedictum and even reviewed the films. In addition, Screenwriter's Conference Center "Script Nurse" (USA) now uses Cinedictum scripts requirements as a learning exercise for their new screenwriters.

Cinedictum Project was thoroughly described on the well-known Italian daily radio show on RAI Radio Due (channel two of the national radio broadcast, aired daily at prime-time: 20.30 pm) "DISPENSER". The have created an amazing 5-minute program introducing the idea of Cinedictum to the Italian listeners. One of Shavkat's films ("Don Juan") was included into the highly ranked film program called: "Independent Exposure - Love and Other Difficulties" presented by "Microcinema International". This program was shown in mini-entertaining places (clubs, bars, pubs, restaurants, etc.) in 79 cities across US. Another film "Chain Reaction" was selected for the "Independent Exposure 2003", a program, which had alarger-scale release in the mini-entertaining places of the United States in 2004. "Cinedictum" project's films had success on many film and TV venues and showcases, forums and exhibitions, including: "The Family Station", Lancaster, CA, USA; "YardFLix", Nashville, TN, USA; "TVvillage Indie Spotlight" on Cable 29, San Francisco, CA, USA; "DV Lounge", New York, NY, USA; "International Channel", Littleton, CO, USA; "Tres Courts" Association, Gentilly, France; "BOB: Brief Original Broadcasts", Littleton, CO, USA; "Moxie Films - Moxie Shorts", New York, NY, USA; and others.

Shavkat Karimov's Cinedictums are currently distributed worldwide by such well-known short film distribution companies as: "Big Film Shorts", Burbank, California, USA; "Imaginites", Applecross, WA, Australia; "Microcinema International", San Francisco, California, USA; "New Life Network", Auggen, Germany; and "Digital Media Strategies", Seattle, Washington, USA - Tokio, Japan. You may read more about Cinedictum and Shavkat Karimov at the official website: http://www.cinedictum.com

"I have many original and interesting ideas and projects, and in the case when my abilities and knowledge will meet opportunities and involvement of my potential associates - these ideas will become fearless and exceptional breakthroughs in the world of films, I am quite confident about that!" - says Shavkat Karimov.

Well, that sounds pretty encouraging and gives us, the people of Uzbekistan, an opportunity to be proud, to hope, and to wait for new names: the names, which will astound the world. Meanwhile, it would be very interesting to watch Shavkat's becoming world film leading light and simply observe this unique and gifted individual.