Yuli Gusman


Yuli Solomonovich Gusman is a Soviet, Russian and Azerbaijani film director and actor. He is the founder and CEO of the Nika Award.

Life and career

Yuli Gusman was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, to military physician Solomon Gusman and professor Lola Barsuk, who later became a translator and professor at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. His brother Mikhail is the vice-president of the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia. In 1966, Yuli Gusman graduated from the Azerbaijan Medical University, majoring in therapeutics, and in 1970 earned a master's degree in Psychology and Psychiatry. He wrote a research paper to defend a thesis for another medical degree, but chose not to do so after being admitted to the Higher Film Directing Courses at Goskino. Upon graduating in 1976, he worked at Azerbaijanfilm directed such films as Iliq danizda buz parçasi and Bir ailalik bag evi and was the director of the satirical newsreel Mozalan. In the 1970s and the 1980s, he worked as manager and director of the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy and the Song Theatre. He has directed seven films and a number of stage plays, including outside the Soviet Union.
In 1965–1972 he was head of Baku's KVN team. He introduced the uniform practice for all KVN teams. In 1993, he was elected to the State Duma of the first convocation. In 1988–2002 Gusman was chairman of the Cinematography Centre in Moscow. In 1996–2000 he hosted the primetime talk-show Tema and the weekly talk-show Vecher s Yuliem Gusmanom on Channel One. In 1996, he founded and became one of the CEOs of the Russian Jewish Congress. In 2004, he was awarded the Order of Friendship.
He is married to Valida Gusman, a French language professor and retired lecturer in the Slavic Languages Department at Georgetown University.

Notable filmography

As a director