Kazakhstan Picks Bauryna Salu Best International Feature

The submissions for the 97th Oscars in the best international feature category are coming thick and fast as countries rush to get in their entries before the Nov. 14 deadline. Kazakhstan is the latest to pick a national contender, selecting Askhat Kuchinchirekov’s coming-of-age tale Bauryna Salu.

The feature premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year and was the stand-out at Kazakhstan’s national film honors, the Tulpars, winning the best film honor. It marks Kuchinchirekov’s feature-length debut as a director. International film fans will remember him for his acting turns in Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan, which won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section back in 2008, and the Ayka in 2018, which made the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature but was not nominated.

Bauryna Salu focuses on a young boy in rural Kazakhstan who is handed over to his grandmother at birth, in accordance with the nomadic tradition of “Bauryna Salu” whereby a close relative, and not a child’s birth parents, are tasked with raising a child to adulthood. When his grandmother dies, the boy, aged 12, goes to live with his parents for the first time and struggles to restore his relationship with them. For the feature, Kuchinchirekov drew on his own experiences growing up with his grandparents under the Bauryna Salu tradition. Wide Management is handling international sales on the feature.

Kazakhstan has been nominated once in the best international feature race, for Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol in 2007, but has yet to win.

The shortlist for the best international feature contenders will be announced on Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced on Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2.