Rufat Hasanov's  film "The Island Within" has been selected as the Azerbaijani entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony will be held next March.

The film tells about Seymur Tahirbayov who is one of the world’s leading chess grandmasters. A few weeks before the most important game of his career, he secretly travels to an island inhabited by just one resident in order to rediscover himself.

"The Island Within" was shot by order of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture by Azerbaijanfilm and Debüt film studios, together with Arizona Productions, Coyote Cinema and Mandarin Agency. 

The post-production is the National Film and Animation Center under the French Ministry of Culture and Baku Media Center.

The cast includes People's Artists of Azerbaijan Vidadi Hasanov, Gurban Ismayilov, Rafig Azimov, actors Orkhan Ata and Elvin Adigozal. 

The film's director of photography is Orkhan Abbasof, production designer – Elturan Mammadov, composers – Katya Yonder and Farhad Farzali, sound editor – Teymur Karimov, first assistant director – Kamran Aghabalayev, executive producer is Nadir Aliyev.   

In 2020, Azerbaijani feature film "The Island Within" was named best at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival. The film won "Heart of Sarajevo" Award in the "Best Director" category.