14/07/2025 - All ten contenders in the International Competition and another seven from the Regional Competition are European productions or co-productions

The 22nd Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (13-20 July), having established its special focus on cinema from the Caucasus and the Middle East, has logically opened with this year’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose first appearance on the international film circuit after a 14-year ban on leaving his country took place last year – and it just so happens that this took place in Yerevan, during the festival.

Another Iranian but US-based auteur is being honoured through a retrospective – Amir Naderi, whose body of work explores displacement, urban alienation and survival. As part of this, new, 4K restorations of Harmonica (1973), The Runner (1985) and the mid-length flick Waiting (1974) will be screened. A separate tribute is dedicated to Mauritanian film director (and this year’s international jury chair) Abderrahmane Sissako, with screenings of some of his pivotal works: The Court [+see also:
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film profile] (2006), Timbuktu [+see also:
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film profile] (2024).

The International Competition gathers ten features. The Wolves Always Come at Night [+see also:
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film profile] (Australia/Mongolia/Germany) by Gabrielle Brady reflects on ecological dread through an ethnographic lens, while Under the Volcano [+see also:
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interview: Damian Kocur
film profile] (Poland) by Damian Kocur examines the emotional state of a family in the outbreak of the war. Croatian director Igor Bezinović delivers a bold satire in Fiume o morte! [+see also:
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film profile], and Anne-Sophie Bailly’s My Everything [+see also:
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interview: Anne-Sophie Bailly
film profile] (France) offers a tender study of sadness and solitude. From Ukraine comes a poignant portrait of daily life in Kyiv under attack, Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+see also:
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interview: Olha Zhurba
film profile] (co-produced with Denmark, Sweden and France) by Olha Zhurba, while The Coin (Italy) by Emiliano Dante paints an experimental portrait of mourning. The selection also includes The World Upside Down (Argentina/Switzerland) by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter, Light Memories [+see also:
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film profile] (Ecuador/Germany) by Misha Vallejo Prut, On the Edge [+see also:
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interview: Guérin Van de Vorst, Sophie…
film profile] (Belgium) by Sophie Muselle and Guérin van de Vorst, and Holy Electricity [+see also:
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interview: Tato Kotetishvili
film profile] (Georgia/Netherlands) by Tato Kotetishvili.

The Regional Competition traditionally foregrounds stories from the Middle East and the Caucasus: After Dreaming (Armenia/Mexico/USA) by Christine Haroutounian poetically captures introspective experiences, while The Crowd (Iran) by Sahand Kabiri depicts a fragmented Tehran through experimental imagery. The Lions by the River Tigris [+see also:
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film profile] (Norway/Netherlands) by Zaradasht Ahmed and Abo Zaabal 89 [+see also:
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film profile] (Germany/Egypt) by Bassam Mortada revisit histories of violence and state control, and Imago [+see also:
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interview: Déni Oumar Pitsaev
film profile] (France/Belgium) by Déni Oumar Pitsaev is an epic-length exploration of exile and transformation. Also featured are A Frown Gone Mad (Lebanon) by Omar Mismar, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (France/Palestine/Iran) by Sepideh Farsi, Tehran, An Unfinished History (Iran) by Saeed Nouri, Aisha Can't Fly Away [+see also:
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interview: Morad Mostafa
film profile] (Tunisia/Qatar/Egypt/France/Saudi Arabia/Sudan/Germany) by Morad Mostafa, and Once Upon a Time in Gaza [+see also:
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interview: Tarzan Nasser
film profile] by Tarzan and Arab Nasser (Palestine/UAE/France/Portugal/Germany/UK/Jordan).

The festival will close with the Armenian classic Last Station (1994) by Harutyun Khachatryan and Nora Armani, featuring a legendary local actor from the Soviet era, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan – thus constituting a lyrical homage to memory, place and Armenian cinema itself.