Sergei Dvortsevoy

Sergei Vladimirovich Dvortsevoy (Kazakh: Серге́й Влади́мирович Дворцево́й; born 18 August 1962; Shymkent) is a Kazakh filmmaker, documentary director, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, producer. His 2008 feature film Tulpan, was Kazakhstan’s 2009 Academy Awards official submission to Foreign Language Film category and was the winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

He was born on August 18, 1962 in Shymkent. Father — Dvortsevoy Vladimir Alexandrovich (1936-2005), engineer-geodesist, mother — Dvortsevaya Vera Petrovna (1938), engineer-cartographer. Graduated from Shymkent Secondary School No. 29. At the same time, he was engaged in football at a children’s sports school, after which he was invited to the team of the second league “Ugolshchik” (Ekibastuz). Instead of continuing his football career in 1979, he entered the aviation school in Krivoy Rog and graduated in 1982. From 1982 to 1990 he worked in the Shymkent Air squadron. In 1988 he graduated from the correspondence department of the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Novosibirsk Electrotechnical Institute.

In 1990, he entered according to an advertisement in the newspaper about the target recruitment from Kazakhstan for the department of directing non-fiction films of the VKSR (workshop of L. Gurevich, S. Zelikin). During his studies, he shot a short course film “Happiness” and a diploma film “Bread Day”, which received several dozen Grand Prix at international film festivals. After graduating from the VKSR, he made documentaries “Highway”, “In the Dark” and the feature film “Tulip”. The film “Tulip” (2008) about the life of shepherds in the Kazakh steppe received the Main prize in the competition program “Un Certain Regard” of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as as many as 9 Grand Prix of international film festivals around the world. In 2018, the film “Aika” about the life of Kyrgyz migrants in Moscow was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Samal Eslyamova, who played the main role, was awarded the Cannes Festival Prize for Best Actress. The film also received the Grand Prix of the 28th International Film Festival in Cottbus (Germany), 190 films from 40 countries competed for the main award at this venue. In addition to the Grand Prix, the tape was also awarded the jury prize. On November 26, 2018, the film won the Grand Prix of the Tokyo Filmex Film Festival. On December 17, 2018, the film was included in the shortlist of contenders for the Academy Award in the nomination “Best Foreign Language Film”.

On July 2, 2019, he became one of the members of the jury of the American Film Academy (along with 841 other participants from 59 countries).