The festival takes place annually on the eve of the capital of Kazakhstan's anniversary. Organizers of the event is the management of the Astana Film Festival with the support of the Astana Mayor's Office and
Bazelevs Company. • First International Astana Action Film Festival was held from June 27 till July 1, 2010 in the
Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall. It was visited by such celebrities, as
Dolph Lundgren,
Harvey Weinstein,
Hilary Swank,
Mike Tyson,
Sharlto Copley and many others. But the main achievement of the first festival became a film project of
Apollo 18 of the young American screenwriter Brian Miller, the winner of a screenplay competition. This movie was released in September 2011, it was directed by
Gonzalo López-Gallego, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Ron Schmidt. • Second International Astana Action Film Festival was held from July 1 to 5, year 2011 in the
Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (Pyramid).
Steven Seagal,
Armand Assante,
Michael Madsen and
Michelle Rodriguez were among other famous faces from Hollywood, Russia and Kazakhstan on the red carpet at the opening gala night of this year festival. • Third International Action Film Festival was held in the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation from July 1 to 3, 2012 and gathered in Astana such celebrities as an actor
Vincent Cassel, directors
Kevin Reynolds and
Kang Je-gyu, producers
Jim Lemley and Dany Wolf and others. This festival was dedicated to the superhero themes, and the students from the leading Asian cinematography academies, who specially came to Kazakhstan to take part in the
ART FEST contest, during three festival days, were creating their own superhero of Astana. ==Program==