14th Golden Apricot Yerevan Film Festival launchesJuly 10, 2017 - 16:31 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, one of the most anticipated cultural events of the year, launched on Sunday, July 9, with the traditional apricot blessing ceremony and the opening of stars of prominent Armenian directors. The festival will run through July 16 in the Armenian capital city of Yerevan. Beside other stars, already installed on Charles Aznavour Square, those celebrating the life and career of directors Frunze Dovlatyan, Yuri Yerznkyan and cinematographer Sergey Israelyan were placed. Guests and participants walked on the red carpet, with the official opening ceremony held at Moscow Cinema. Welcoming speeches were delivered by founding director of the festival Harutyun Khachatryan and Ralph Yirikian, the General Manager of VivaCell-MTS, which is the general partner of the festival. After announcing the start of the festival, the competition programs and the international jury boards were presented and the opening film Khaspush by Hamo Beknazaryan was screened. “We have had a long way with the Golden Apricot and I can say the festival is more than just a cinematographic event as it has a mission to complete. For fourteen years now it tries to keep the human mind awake and make humanity follow the civilized system of values. Cinema is a powerful means to know each other, to understand, and to respect people. I welcome the participants of the festival, its guests, and the movie-goers, wishing joyous experience and success,” said Yirikian. The apricot-shaped geometric figure symbolizes the 14th edition of the festival. The festival, which has received more 1100 film submissions from 96 countries, can be a real celebration of cinema with diverse and original films in competition and non-competition programs. The festival is a unique chance for the Armenian movie-goers to get acquainted with the masterpieces of international cinema. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Ucom General Director gives lecture at French University in Armenia The General Director of Ucom Ralph Yirikian delivered a lecture at the French University of Armenia. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. |