It seemed as though the “Golden Apricot” film festival organizers were relieved when they found out that “Viva Cell” was going to be the general sponsor. After all, the 50 million AMD from Armenia’s state budget wouldn’t be enough to take care of the expenses.
However, five days before the opening ceremony, the event organizers found out that “Viva Cell” is planning on making huge profits besides sponsoring the biggest cultural event in Armenia. Artistic director of the “Golden Apricot” film festival Susanna Harutyunyan says that “Viva Cell” demands that all television networks and the organization committee broadcast its commercials or show its logo when interviewing film directors and guests or showing clips. She asked television journalists to inform television network owners about that. It turns out that the large phone company demands that the organizers of the non-profit “Golden Apricot” film festival (they’re not even going to get the share of ticket sales) to solve the issue with television networks. The committee includes well-known professionals in the film industry, however the lack of a advertisement director and the disability to sign a quick contract with “Viva Cell” may ruin everything. After all, nobody signs this kind of contract with the mass media. If you demand something, then you may get the opposite of what you want. Many mass media representatives will not only refrain from talking about this festival, but also (no matter how wonderful the program is and how good it’s organized) they won’t give good feedback. S. Harutyunyan is trying to come to terms with journalists, however commerce and art don’t mix and setting such requirements won’t help solve anything. The mass media simply won’t bring the films and film directors into the light and the week-long event won’t be the center of their attention. The “Golden Apricot” film festival organizers want exactly 150 copies of newspapers featuring exclusive interviews with the guests. It turns out that each newspaper will have to pay 15,000 AMD for each exclusive interview. This is a rather absurd calculation because the organizers have to work with each newspaper edition separately and find out what benefits the festival more-selling news to the newspapers or working with the editions to provide information? The organizers must meet with weeklies and television networks separately because the advertisement departments don’t care about the journalists’ opinions and may refuse broadcasting news about the festival entirely rather than showing an advertisement free of charge. After all, television networks and newspaper editions pay a value added tax for printing or showing advertisements. Just like professionals get accepted into the committee and approve the best films, the advertising contracts also have to be left up to the professionals who know how to work with the mass media. The tie between the sponsors and the sponsored won’t motivate the people to go and watch the films, rather it will create chaos. There’s only a couple of days before the festival kicks off and it still isn’t too late to find someone who knows how to deal with the mass media. The audience has nothing to do with the problems between the sponsor and the festival organizers and has the right to get the information and enjoy watching the films.