The 21st International Film Festival “Golden Apricot” is held from 7 to 14 of July. This year the “Golden Apricot” honours two great Armenians’ 100th anniversary – Charles Aznavour and Sergey Parajanov.
The general sponsor of the festival is Yerevan Municipality. The “Golded Apricot” is held with the support of the RA Ministry of ESCS.
“The “Golden Apricot” is one of the cultural attractions of our city. It is the third year Yerevan Municipality has been the general partner of the festival. 100 million drams were disbursed for the organization of the festival. We will carry on the policy we have adopted in the sphere of culture. This year the festival also involves the miscellany of 5 films created with the support of Yerevan Municipality”, informed Yerevan Deputy Mayor Levon Hovhannisyan.
The founder of the festival Harutyun Khachatryan, congratulating everyone on the festival’s start, expressed gratitude to Yerevan Municipality for the support.
The French Embassy in Armenia and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Armenia supported the festival as well. The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Armenia Jaap Frederiks in his turn stressed that the “Golden Apricot” is not just a film festival but Armenia’s cultural window to the world.
This year the traditional red carpet of the opening ceremony will be replaced by the collection of carpets designed by the artist David Kochunts and woven by carpet makers. The collection is entitled "Point of Reference".
The opening film of the 21st festival is the “Seven Veils” by the Canadian Armenian movie director Atom Egoyan. Egoyan returns to the “Golden Apricot” as the president of the jury for short-length films. The film is the breathtaking and flamboyant rethinking of Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome”.
“This year the festival involves approximately 90 films. The president of the jury of full-length films is the double “Oscar” awardee Alexander Payne, eight of whose full-length films were nominated for 24 “Oscars”. Five of his movies will be shown at the festival. The president of the jury of competitive programs “Regional Panorama” is the Indian American film director Tarsem Singh”, marked the director and artistic leader of the festival Karen Avetisyan.
The honorary guest of the international festival is the eminent actor of theatre and movie Kevin Spacey. He has received two Academy Awards, a Golden Globus Award, a Lawrence Olivier Award and many other prestigious awards. Meetings and master classes are involved in the festival as well.
The films shows are held at the Cinema House, the “Moskva” cinema and at Malyan theatre.