There are twelve films entered in Armenian Panorama category at this year’s International Golden Apricot Film Festival soon to take place in Yerevan.

The twelve finalists were culled from a total of 90 submissions.

Raffi Movsisyan, who coordinates the category competition wasn’t impressed with what he saw.

“Sadly, this year’s Armenian films weren’t that good. We found ourselves in a serious quandary because we watched the films for a long time, discussed them, and had to select the finalists.”

The category showcases a variety of films – documentaries and commercial, shorts and full length. The category will select three winners – Best Armenian Full Length Film, Best Armenian Short, and Best Armenian Documentary.

Vardan Hakobyan, a member of the selection committee, notes that the bar was placed high last year and this has made this year’s selection process all the more difficult.

Our young directors shoot their first film like it was their last. There should be simpler, ordinary films,” Hakobyan says.

Movsisyan adds that a situation has been created in which there are a few personalities in the Armenian film scene who periodically make films that comprise the bulk of work submitted in this category.

This year, these directors haven’t shot any films and the project has suffered as a result.  

On the other hand, this dearth of films from known directors provides an opportunity to young filmmakers to get included in the competition.

Last year there were seven full length films as finalists in the Armenian Panorama category. This year the number’s dropped to four – 1915 (USA - Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian), Moskvich My Love (Armenia, France, Russia - Aram Shahbazyan), The Man in the Orange Jacket (Latvia, Estonia - Haik Karapetyan), and Somewhere Beautiful (Brazil - Albert Kodagolian).

All the films in the Armenian Panorama category will be shown at the Hayastan movie theater.

Films in the non-competition “Armenians: Internal and External View” category will be shown at the Henrik Malyan Theater.

The Golden Apricot International Film Festival will run from July 12-19.

Photo: Raffi Movsisyan