Summer is here, apricots will ripen soon, and the “Golden Apricot” international film festival will be opened. The film festival, which has been running for four years now, has much experience, contacts and sponsors.
As director of the festival and cinematographer Harutyun Khachatryan said, this year’s “Golden Apricot” is going to be bigger than the previous three, based on its budget. The government is going to provide 50 million drams for the festival, and the general sponsor will pay several times more than that. The printed symbol for this year is no longer going to be the apricot (not the seed, nor the jam). The symbol of the festival is the contour of Charlie Chaplin and a movie with four arms. The four arms will symbolize the four years of the film festival, while the figure of the great comedian will be the unique start of the film festival.
The festival will open on July 9 with the showing of the film called “Farm of the Larks” by Vittorio and Paolo Taviani. The film, which was shown during this year’s film festival in Berlin, is based on the theme of Armenia. Italian-Armenian prose writer Antonia Arslan, whose novel “Farm of the Larks” has turned into the basis for the film, created a story about migration and the emotions of an Armenian family. The production team (directors, the author and actors Arsine Khanjyan and Jackie Cario) will arrive in Yerevan a couple of weeks before the official “Golden Apricot” opening ceremony, which will take place at the “Moscow” cinema and will be probably be organized as a concert.
“Armenians love concerts with for opening and closing ceremonies. We will try to have movies predominate,” said Khachatryan.
Michael Stamboltsyan, program director of the film festival, assured that this year it will be possible to install a huge screen in the square named after Charles Aznavour and organize evening showings of films under the open sky.
“Golden Apricot” will have its three traditional categories – “Armenian Panorama”, “The best film” and “The Best Documentary”. The organizational committee of the festival informed about the films and jury of the “Armenian Panorama” category. This year the Armenian films were selected not by the “Golden Apricot” organizational committee, rather the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia. The jury headed by president of the Union of Cinematographers and film director Ruben Gevorgyants chose 22 out of the 62 films presented. Armenian cinematographers from Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora will present their films. The jury headed by director Vigen Chaldranian has been trusted with rating the films. The jury also includes Armenian-American actor and director Michael Giurjian, stage director of animated films Naira Muradian, TV journalist Arthur Bakhtamyan and Argentinean-Armenian actor and journalist Jack Poghosian. In order to make it easier for paving the path of Armenian film production to the world audience, this year meetings will be held with the representatives of funds adjunct to large international movie critics. The lack of finances is not due to stop new film production. There are funds that are ready to support cinematographers, and a large fund was created in light of the Berlin festival. That fund is ready to help Armenian film directors and screenplay writers. The president of the fund will arrive to Yerevan to get acquainted with Armenian cinematographers and inform them about how the fund can help.
“There is no film that the world doesn’t need, if, of course, it is created by a talented person. It’s enough of relying on the state. It is time for us to know that there are different fund sources, and it is time for Armenian cinema to move up to the next level,” said Khachatrian.
“Armenian Panorama” will also present the “new Armenian cinema” with a special program. The four films produced in the past year and one TV film will introduce the guests of the festival to our achievements and spread the word about Armenian cinema in international cinema. Those films are Vigen Chaldranian’s “The nun”, Hovik Galstian’s “Entangled Parallels”, Gagik Harutyunian’s “Incense”, Artak Sevada’s “As a beginning” and Aram Shahbazyan’s “Don’t be afraid”.
During the festival, besides the jury, there will also be two independent groups of experts, including the international film critics’ association (FIPRESI) and ecumenical juries searching for the lines between the church and cinema. These independent juries will be formed of three members each – two from abroad, and one Armenian expert.
“The presence of such juries talks about the high reputation of the film festival, because the main goal of the experts is to get introduced to the novelty of the Armenian national film. The jury will award the Armenian cinematographers,” said artistic director of “Golden Apricot” Susanna Harutyunyan. Armenian youth will also have the opportunity to study abroad.