The “Golden Apricot” 10th Jubilee International Film Festival will kick off on July 7

Today, the Ministry of Culture hosted the first press conference dedicated to the Golden Apricot” 10th Jubilee International Film Festival. The joint press conference was presided by the Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian, the Director of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival Harutyun Khachatryan, the Festival Program Director Mikayel Stamboltsyan and Artistic Director Sousanna Harutyounyan.

The “Golden Apricot” 10th Jubilee International Film Festival will take place from July 7 till 14. This year again the General Sponsor of the Festival VivaCell-MTS and the Ministry of Culture of Armenia are by the side of the festival.

The 2013 is special for the “Golden Apricot”, celebrating its 10th anniversary. The festival will host world known cinematographers Krzysztof Zanussi, Godfrey Reggio and Jos Stelling, bestowed with the “Parajanov’s Thaler” for their contribution in the industry. The Charles Aznavour star will be opened at the square holding the name of the world known singer and movie actor.

This year the festival has received around 1200 applications from 94 countries (to compare, in 2012 the number of applying countries was 67), which is an evidence that the interest in the world toward the festival grows year by year. This year again the festival will include international competition programs for full feature, documentary and the “Apricot Stone” short feature films, as well as the “Armenian Panorama” national competition program. The films included in the competition will be judged by four juries.

The jury of the international feature film competition will be headed by the celebrated Hungarian director Istvan Sabo; the international documentary film competition will be headed by the 2012 “Golden Apricot” laureate and famous director Sergey Loznitsa. The FIPRESCI and the Ecumenical juries will also work during the festival. The “Yerevan Premiere”, “Retrospective Screenings” and “Tribute of Honor” programs expected to bring surprises from the worldly masters of cinema, occupy a special place in the festival events. The festival will celebrate Aram Khachaturian’s 110th, Artavazd Peleshyan’s and Nerses Hovhannisyan’s 75th anniversaries.

“Art is about freedom. As an art of imaginary, cinematography plays a huge role in the education and development of personality and the society at large. And therefore, making the most unique, delicate, interesting and serious films available to Armenian film-lovers is a worthy cause to support. On the other hand, thanks to Golden Apricot, Armenian youth shows profound interest toward cinema and film-making. For VivaCell-MTS the mission of “Golden Apricot” is more than just a cinematographic event, it is a cultural mark for our Nation, an important step to strengthen the unique position of Armenia on the cultural map of the world,” VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian said.