Golden Apricot International Film Festival

Armenian filmmakers have both the necessary structure and the talent for creating international films. Armenian spectator simply should engage in a dialogue with the pictures, feel their taste - Atom Egoyan

The Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (GAIFF) is an annual film festival held in Yerevan, Armenia with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia. Until 2011, the film festival had three main programs: international contests of the feature and documentary films, as well as the contest "Armenian panorama."

 In 2011, a new competitive program of short film "Apricot stone" appeared. In the first year of the film festival, only Armenian filmmakers took part in it, but since the second film festival foreign filmmakers have also been taking part in it. The International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" is twinned with the Rotterdam and Busan International Film Festivals. The main prize of the festival is "Golden Apricot".

 History

The International Yerevan Film Festival Golden Apricot was founded by documentary filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan, screenwriter Mikhail Stamboltsyan and film critic Susanna Harutyunyan with the direct participation of Atom Egoyan. The motto of the festival is "The Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations", as it was conceived as a kind of cultural bridge contributing to a dialogue between the West and the East. The festival symbolically reflects the history of Armenia, which already for the 5th millennium is the arena of the struggle of world powers. Convenient geographical position has turned it into an apple of discord, but, on the other hand, it has become a place of interaction and fusion of different cultures.

For the first time, the International Golden Apricot Film Festival was held in Yerevan from June 30 to July 4, 2004, becoming the annual event in the world of cinema held in mid-July in Armenia. Each Golden Apricot festival opens with the traditional blessing of the symbol of Armenia - apricot, the Latin name of which Prúnus armeniáca translates as "Armenian fruit".