On March 24 at 11:00 Cinema Towers 3D in Almaty hosted one of the first press conferences slated within the Annual Astana International Action Film Festival. At the press conference, director and producer Timur Bekmambetov declared the opening of the Festival, introduced the screenplay competition, and clarified the terms and conditions of the film screening and winner selection procedure. The press conference included a presentation of the trailer for Apollo 18 by American scriptwriter Brian Miller, winner of the Astana International Action Film Festival 2010 screenplay competition. Iren Vanidovskaya, Director General of the Astana Action Film Fstival and Oksana Ermashova, Vice President of Sabi Charity Fund emceed the press conference. Notable guests also included the Kazakhstani actress and model Asel Sagatova and actor Farhad Abdraimov.

A few days prior to the conference great efforts were made to invite media representatives (TV channels, radio, newspapers, magazines, Internet portals, news agencies and cinema-specific periodicals), and to distribute press releases on the forthcoming event.

A press release, information on Sabi Charity Funds, and a DVD containing the trailer for Apollo 18 was distributed to the journalists and participants in the press conference. The most active media representatives were awarded with the Festival T-shirts.