The actor asserts that the PR campaign of the movie “If Only Everyone” was launched too late
The 85th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 24. American and especially foreign viewers are naturally interested in who will win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In this case, basically not movies, but rather countries, their producers, businessmen, communal and religious centers compete. Let us remind that “If Only Everyone,” a movie representing Armenia, the producer and the leading actor of which is Mikael Poghosyan, and the director of which is Natalya Belyauskene, also aspired to the Oscar.
Aravot met with Mikael Poghosyan who had just returned from the US the other day. Since we hadn’t come across the Armenian movie among the 5 movies nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, we inquired about the fate of the movie, the actor’s
American trip, in particular. Moreover, we had information that he had gone to America to attract the Oscar committee’s attention to his picture at all costs. Mikael Poghosyan stated that he had been like Tumanyan’s Gikor in the US. In response to the remark he had no experience of participating in contests of that caliber, what about the country, the actor said briefly: “The country even more so,” adding that the PR campaign of his movie had been launched too late.
Mikael Poghosyan also informed that especially the Hay Dat office and Harut Sasunyan backed the movie. “After Mr. Sasunyan’s article about the movie, which was published in a few languages, the Azeri mass media made an unspeakable fuss; they wrote, not even having seen the movie, that this Armenian movie was about their occupied land. Whereas in this movie that tells about the Artsakh War, an emphasis is put on peace we have achieved at a high price. To many people, the war is not over yet. This movie told about those days and people who continue to live next to us, create, but I think the echo of war will follow them till the end of their lives. The Azeris even wrote a letter to the Oscar organizers, and one can say that they played a negative role in not including our movie in the short list.”
We asked him to explain what the short list was. “After watching 350 movies, the Oscar committee selected 71 movies, and then 9 movies out of those 71. The list of those movies is the short list. We managed to find out that our movie was in the top 25 among those 71 before the selection of 9 movies.” He added that the Hay Dat office had intended to show the movie in the US Senate, which hadn’t happened because of lack of time.
Mikael Poghosyan stated that “If Only Everyone” was shown at the closing ceremony of the Arpa International Film Festival on December 2, 2012. He won the Award for Best Actor at the festival, and Frances Fisher (in the photo) won the Award for Best Actress. “On December 7, the movie was shown in San Francisco, on December 9, it was shown in Los Angeles, on December 12, news was spread that the movie had been watched by the Oscar committee, and on January 4, the picture was shown in New York.” Our interlocutor assured that American movie critics and periodicals had talked about “If Only Everyone,” mentioning the famous magazine called Variety. “If Only Everyone” has participated in 12 international festivals in Moscow, Paris, Bucharest, Pusan and elsewhere, winning 5 international awards.
It won the Award for Best Armenian Movie at Golden Apricot. In 2013, they plan to show the movie in China, Argentina, and in April, it will participate in famous Nika.
SAMVEL DANIELYAN
Aravot Daily
