Sher-Niyaz founded the festival in late 2014, after his own experience in running a campaign for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards (Oscars).
Sher-Niyaz was the director of the Kyrgyz submission, Queen of the Mountains (Kurmanjan Datka), which according to The Hollywood Reporter was predicted asone of the top 15 contenders.
There is a wealth of underrated filmmakers from our region that deserve recognition and this festival was designed to champion and promote them.
"[2] The inaugural festival ran from October 26 to November 2, 2015, supported by media partners TheWrap.
[2] As of 2021[update], the Asian World Film Festival board members comprise Lucy Liu, Lisa Lu, David Seidler, Jean-Marc Vallée, Joan Chen, Janet Yang, David Henry Hwang, Imran Khan, Tabrez Noorani, and Sergei Bodrov.