After an opening night which surprised the audience with a visit from Iranian filmmaker and recent Palme D’Or winner Jafar Panahi, the 22nd Golden Apricot Film Festival, which unspooled 13 to 20 July, concluded with special prizes being awarded to helmers Abderrahmane Sissako, Harutyun Khachatryan (Parajanov’s Thaler for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (the Special Master Prize). Award-winners from the festival’s three competitions were also announced during the closing gala held at the Golden Apricot’s main venue: the House of Cinema in Yerevan.

The winner of the International Feature Film Competition and recipient of the Golden Apricot was Fiume o morte! [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] for “its originality, and ability to capture conceptually and inventively how the historical, performative and insidious reach of fascism endures amongst us”, the jury enthused. Set in the 1910s and directed by Igor Bezinović, the film is continuing its successful festival run which kicked off at the IFFR where it nabbed a Tiger trophy and the FIPRESCI Prize. The Tbilisi-set movie Holy Electricity [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tato Kotetishvili
ficha de la película] by Tato Kotetishvili came second, bagging a Silver Apricot for: “the masterful yet humble way in which the filmmaker creates a porous narrative which transcends the border between fiction and reality”. A Jury Special Mention, for its part, went to Olha Zhurba’s Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+lee también:
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entrevista: Olha Zhurba
ficha de la película], “for its unwavering commitment to crafting a cinematic fresco of the tragic reality of war.

The Regional Competition jury favoured Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, awarding it their main prize, the Golden Apricot, while the Silver Apricot went to Teheran, An Unfinished History by Saeed Nouri. The final recognition in this section, the Jury Special Mention, was won by Zaradasht Ahmed’s The Lions by the River Tigris [+lee también:
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ficha de la película].

The winners of the Apricot Stone competition dedicated to short films were also announced. The FIPRESCI jury, for their part, decided to single out Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away [+lee también:
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entrevista: Morad Mostafa
ficha de la película].

The International Competition jury, comprised of Abderrahmane Sissako, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Ada Solomon, Eric Nazarian, Amir Naderi, Kira Kovalenko and Karren Karagulian, also chaired the Regional Panorama jury; Fred Kelemen presided over the Apricot Stone selection, and the FIPRESCI jury was composed of Poland’s Bartosz Żurawiecki, France’s Shiva Fouladi and Armenia’s David P Vardazarian.

The full list of award winners:

International Feature Film Competition

Golden Apricot
Fiume o morte! [+lee también:
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Silver Apricot
Holy Electricity [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Tato Kotetishvili
ficha de la película] – Tato Kotetishvili (Georgia)

Jury Special Mention
Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Olha Zhurba
ficha de la película] – Olha Zhurba (Ukraine/Denmark/Sweden/France)

Regional Panorama

Golden Apricot
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk – Sepideh Farsi (France/Palestine)

Silver Apricot
Teheran, An Unfinished Story – Saeed Nouri (Iran)

Jury Special Mention
The Lions by the River Tigris [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] – Zaradasht Ahmed (Norway/Netherlands)

FIPRESCI Award
Aisha Can’t Fly Away [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Morad Mostafa
ficha de la película] – Morad Mostafa (Egypt/Sudan/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia/Quatar/France/Germany)

Gennadi Melkonyan Special Award
Motherland – Gor Arushanyan (Poland) (short film)

Apricot Stone Short Film Competition

Golden Apricot
Motherland – Gor Arushanyan

Silver Apricot
Snake Soup – Zack Demirtshyan (Armenia)

Jury Special Mention
The World is Ours - Areg Azatyan (USA/Armenia)

Parajanov’s Thaler for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema
Amir Naderi
Abderrahmane Sissako
Harutyun Khachtryan

Special Master Prize
Athina Rachel Tsangari