Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, the famous Russian director Timur Bekmambetov met in Tashkent with students of the VGIK branch and young filmmakers. The meeting was held in the Uzbekfilm pavilion.

At the event, representatives of the Cinematography Agency of Uzbekistan and the Bazelevs Animation studio announced the opening of a network of animation training centers Animation School.

“Uzbekistan has become the first country where we introduce such experience. The corresponding memorandum was signed in October at the Tashkent International Film Festival "Pearl of the Silk Road". Then Tatarstan, Kazakhstan and Perm will join us,” Bekmambetov said.

It should be noted that the creation of animation studios is provided for by the State Program for the Implementation of the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022–2026 in the “Year of Ensuring Human Interests and Development of the Mahalla”.

The goal of the project is to form a self-sustaining regional network of animation studios in the concept of "study and earn" for puppet theater actors and graduates of the relevant faculties of creative universities. In the case of Uzbekistan, these are students of the Russian branch of VGIK.

The guys will learn the profession of an animator on a specific project - the cartoon "Khoja Nasreddin", creating all its characters from scratch.

"Khoja Nasreddin" will become a kind of sandbox in which future animators will play and create. The implementation of this project will provide an opportunity to put into practice the acquired knowledge and experience under the guidance of well-known animators and filmmakers,” commented Bekmambetov.

It is planned that work on the experimental cartoon will last until 2023. After that, the animators will continue to work in other projects of the Bazelevs Animation studio.