On July 12, the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after Al. Spendiaryan hosted the opening ceremony of the Festival where the attendees paid tribute to the memory of Omar Sharif.
The honorable guests of the largest cultural event of this year hosted in Yerevan included Ornella Muti and Nastassja Kinski. Italian actress Ornella Muti is know to the Armenian audiences by the comedy “The Taming of the Scoundrel” (1980), where her partner is Adriano Celentano. The premiere of the film “Swann in Love” with her casting will be screened under the “Golden Apricot” festival.
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By the romantic movie “Stay as You Are”, which brought fame to German actress Nastassja Kinski, it is planned to have a retrospective screening of her films for the fans. During the opening ceremony of the Festival, special awards, Parajanov’s Thaler, are awarded to the honored guests Ornella Muti and Nastassja Kinski. “You are awarded with these awards in a hope that we will see you again in our festival. Parajanov has prepared them while being in prison,” noted Harutyun Khachatryan. Ornella Muti said that she is proud to be in Armenia. “I have managed to see very little in Armenia, but what I have seen is superb. It is a wonderful festival, hopefully, it will become bigger”, – noted she. Nastassja Kinski said that attending the Armenian festival looks like a tender dream. “It was also wonderful to meet Ornella and share this day with you,” she added.
The festival is also attended by famous filmmaker Artavazd Peleshyan who in the interview with journalists only said that he has missed Armenia. Peleshyan was welcomed by the audience with stormy and long applauses. Note that the program of the festival held for the 12th time is also diverse this year. The organizers assure that during the seven days, each one will find many films of his interest. This year, the festival has received around 1,600 applications from 105 countries. The selected 12 out of 76 films will compete in the “International Feature Competition”, 13 – in the “International documentary,” 17 – in the “Armenian Panorama”, and 34 – in the “Stone” Short Film Competition program.
Siranush HAYRAPETYAN
