Ermek Tursunov

Ermek Tursunov was born in the settlement of Narynkol, Almaty Region, on 20 July 1961. He joined a sports school at the age of 5. Ermek continued his sports career at university playing professional futsal. As a member of Kazakhstan's national futsal team, Ermek took part in the 2000 World Cup in Guatemala. He is a graduate Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Dept. Of Journalism, 1984) and All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (Screenwriting and Film Studies Dept., 1990).

In 1991, Ermek participated in Nevada-Semey movement Anti-nuclear movement in Kazakhstan, and as an NGO member spent 4 years studying in the USA. Later he worked as the CEO of the national broadcasting corporation Qazaqstan and Executive Producer of Channel 31 TV and radio broadcasting company. Kelin was Ermek's debut as a director in 2008. This work was shortlisted for Oscar as the Best Foreign Language Film. 2012 saw his movie The Old Man (Shal), inspired by Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It collected numerous rewards, including Kulager, Kazakhstani national movie award, as the best movie of the year (2012); it was nominated for the Nika Award for the Best CIS and Baltic Movie in 2014. Stranger (Zhat) became another major movie in Tursunov's career as a screen director. Kazakhstan nominated it for an Oscar and Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Achievement in Directing); it received NETPAC award in the 19th Black Nights Festival in Tallinn.

Ermek Tursunov was elected Chairman of the Kazakhstani Union of Filmmakers in 2018.