Behind The Lens And Creativity Of Renowned Film Producer Anila Nugmanova
Such an interesting success story. Anila Nugmanova, a talented and successful film producer, initially studied finance at the behest of her very practical and caring parents so she would be able to apply anywhere in the world and make a living. She earned a degree in Finance from the American Graduate School of Business in Switzerland and went back to her native Kazakhstan and worked for several companies and life was great. However, that was when she began to have second thoughts about how she should and would spend her future years and about what she truly wanted to do for the rest of her life as a career.
She grew up loving movies and the Back To The Future films grabbed her and inspired her at a young age to become a filmmaker. Her parents, being the pragmatic people they were, discouraged Anila and said simply that she should first get a profession that would always make money and then, if she wanted, she could study filmmaking when she could pay for it herself. She agreed, but then after a couple of years working only with numbers and seeing very little color or excitement in that field, she flew to New York, and signed up for filmmaking courses at the famed New York Film Academy. After finishing, Anila flew back to Kazakhstan where she knocked on countless doors until she got a job in the movie business. That took a lot of hard work, determination and about six months, but she did it.
One thing led to another and from that first job in the film world, she went on to another project with a friend she met in New York and the film Virginity won high praise and a ton of awards at well known film festivals. Her hard work, passion for filmmaking and strong determination brought her to the attention of even more filmmakers and she was invited to work on project after project. She took part in films that were shot all over the world and then, after wrapping up a project in Laos and Thailand she enrolled in the UCLA Entertainment studies program while she continued to work on different films. She was then brought on board as an Associate Producer to Bazelevs production company, founded by the renowned Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Searching, Hardcore Henry) where she is currently employed.
The company actively develops projects in a Screenlife format, where the narration of the film happens from the computer or smartphone screens of a main character. The movie Unfriended shot in 2014 was the first experimental movie in Screenlife format and turned out to be a success grossing more than $64 million with a budget of $1 million. In 2019 when partnered with Snapchat Anila produced the web series Dead of Night, which brought Snapchat about 14 million viewers within the first month since the premiere and helped increase the viewing time by 40%. The following second season was released in November 2020.
Nowadays, together with the Bazelevs team Anila vigorously develops Screenlife projects including projects concluded from the deal to make 5 films in Screenlife format with Universal Studios and her success and filmmaking achievements continue to blossom.
