The "Golden Apricot" International Film Festival will take place from July 13 to 19.
03-07-2026 19:26 Armenia Culture
The 23rd Yerevan International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" will be held with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports as a budgetary program in the field of cinema. This was announced by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports. This year, around 600 applications have been submitted from 90 countries, of which 90 films from 40 countries have been included in the festival program.
The festival will take place from July 13 to 19. Screenings will be held at the Cinema House, "Moscow," and "Nairi" cinemas. The main sponsor of the festival is the Yerevan City Hall:
A press conference was held at the Cinema House ahead of the festival, attended by Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Tigran Virabyan, Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Levon Hovhannisyan, founder and president of the "Golden Apricot" International Film Festival Harutyun Khachatryan, festival director and artistic director Karen Avetisyan, and head of the international department Varvara Hovhannisyan.
Deputy Minister Tigran Virabyan welcomed the attendees, emphasizing that it is a great honor for him to participate in the press conference of the "Golden Apricot" festival at the beginning of his term:
"For many years, all my friends, colleagues, and partners from the diaspora have been asking when the 'Golden Apricot' International Film Festival will take place while planning their June-July months. This means that people have started to plan their vacations, prioritizing and marking this beautiful and important cultural event, the 'Golden Apricot' festival, in their calendars."
The Deputy Minister, thanking his colleagues and the founders of the festival, noted that for the audience, the festival begins and ends on specific days of the calendar as a week to enjoy films: "However, for the festival team, those days began 23 years ago and continue to this day. After each year's festival, they prepare for the next festival, and this work and effort are invaluable, resulting in the 'Golden Apricot' being one of the best film festivals in the world."
Deputy Mayor Levon Hovhannisyan particularly emphasized the significant increase in the ranking of the "Golden Apricot" festival in the international arena, which, according to him, also necessitates a substantial increase in funding as the main sponsor.
It was noted that the "Golden Apricot" festival has been ranked by the World Federation of Film Producers Associations, being included in the top 50 festivals.
Founder and president of the "Golden Apricot" International Film Festival Harutyun Khachatryan thanked all those who have believed in its establishment since the beginning and have been supportive of the idea: "We started the festival to have cinema, and today the vibrancy of the film industry shows that we are on the right track."
The program of the festival was briefly presented by director and artistic director Karen Avetisyan, emphasizing that the "Golden Apricot" festival has regional and international influence, which is an important achievement. In this context, he referred to the collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival.
This year, within the framework of that collaboration, four short films will be created in co-production by Armenian and European directors.
According to Karen Avetisyan, the opening of the festival will take place on July 13 with the screening of Tamara Stepanyan's film "The Land of Arto," a co-production between Armenia and France. The president of the festival's "International Jury" is Jessica Hausner, a leading figure in contemporary Austrian cinema. Her films have premiered in Cannes and Venice, gaining wide recognition for innovative approaches in genre cinema. Mahmoud Kalari, one of the well-known operators of Iranian cinema, will head the jury of the "Regional Competition."
This year's honorary guest of the festival is the prominent French-Armenian actor Simon Abgaryan.
"We also have a renowned honorary guest. The world-famous Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, an Oscar winner and laureate of numerous film festivals, will present his new film 'Fatherland' to the Yerevan audience," said Karen Avetisyan.
According to Varvara Hovhannisyan, head of the international department, the film festival will again present competitive and non-competitive programs from various countries around the world, as well as films from prestigious international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, and other leading film platforms.
This year's main poster of the festival is dedicated to poetry. The author of the main poster is the famous artist and designer Igor Gurovich.
* This text was automatically translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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