The anniversary edition of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday night with an elegant awards ceremony at Yerevan’s Cinema House, followed by a screening of Atom Egoyan’s Calendar (1993).

The International Competition jury highlighted the Greek film Black Stone [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Spiros Jacovides for its “strong portrait of today’s Greece” and its “admirable acting.” The Silver Apricot went to Simão Cayatte’s Drifter, described by the jury as “an impressive and emotional film with a unique aesthetic and artistic expression.” Tomer Heyman’s I Am Not won the Humanitarian Award for being “sensitively and courageously staged documentary cinema,” while the Special Mention was handed to Zara Dwinger’s Kiddo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Zara Dwinger
scheda film], characterised as “carefully staged between vintage and real life, projection and everyday life, anger and longing.”

The Golden Apricot in the Regional Panorama Competition was taken by Endless Borders [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Abbas Amini
scheda film], outlined by the jury as an “absorbing, strongly acted drama of impossible choices under oppression.” The Georgian-German documentary Magic Mountain [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mariam Chachia, Nik Voigt
scheda film] received the Silver Apricot award for being a “deeply considered, poetic documentary” which portrays an “evocative symbol of power structures in Georgia.” The Special Mention was granted to Notes on Displacement [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] for capturing the hardship of displacement with “great immediacy, humanity, and an approach that emotionally devastates but never manipulates the audience.” Additionally, the FIPRESCI Award was bestowed upon Mehran Tamadon’s documentary My Worst Enemy in which the director simulates being interrogated by agents of the Islamic Republic. 

Finally, the big winner of the Apricot Stone Competition for Best Short Film was the poetic Armenian animation The Song of the Flying Leaves, produced and directed by Armine Anda and co-written by Roman Balayan. The film also received the Gennadi Melkonyan Special prize.

The Grand Prix co-production award of $5,000 in the GAIFF Pro Industry Platform went to the fiction project in development The Passport by Rakan Mayasi, a co-production between Palestine, Jordan, Serbia, and Germany. The project also won the post-production award, while the Special Mention was given to the Armenian-French-Swedish co-production Homemade Mulberry Vodka by Anzhela Frangyan.

Here is the full list of award winners at the 20th Golden Apricot International Film Festival:

International Feature Film Competition
Golden Apricot
Black Stone [+leggi anche:
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Silver Apricot
Drifter - Simão Cayatte (Portugal/France/Poland)

Award for the Best Humanitarian Film
I Am Not - Tomer Heymann (Israel/Guatemala)

Special Mention
Kiddo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Zara Dwinger
scheda film] - Zara Dwinger (Netherlands)

Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine prize
I Am Not - Tomer Heymann (Israel/Guatemala)

Regional Panorama Feature Film Competition
Golden Apricot
Endless Borders [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Abbas Amini
scheda film] – Abbas Amini (Germany/Iran/Czech Republic)

Silver Apricot
Magic Mountain [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Mariam Chachia, Nik Voigt
scheda film] - Mariam Chachia, Nik Voigt (Germany/Georgia)

Special Mention
Notes on Displacement [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] - Khaled Jarrar (Palestine/Germany/Qatar)

FIPRESCI Award
My Worst Enemy - Mehran Tamadon (France/Switzerland)

Apricot Stone Short Film Competition
Golden Apricot
The Song of the Flying Leaves – Armine Anda (Armenia)

Silver Apricot
Stones – Arman Ayvazyan (Armenia)

Special Mention
Emptiness – Tigran Aghajanyan

Freedom Broker Armenia Prize
From the Work of The Devil – Dessil Mekhtigian (Armenia/Egypt)

Gennadi Melkonyan Special Award
The Song of the Flying Leaves – Armine Anda (Armenia)

GAIFF Pro Industry Platform
Co-Production Market
Grand Prix
The Passport – Rakan Mayasi (Palestine/Jordan/Serbia/Germany)
Production: Zorana Mušikić

Special Mention
Homemade Mulberry Vodka – Anzhela Frangyan (Armenia/France/Sweden)
Production: Stéphane Jourdain

Residency Award
Ever Since I Knew Myself [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Maka Gogaladze (Georgia/Germany)

Mentorship Award
Grounding – Merri Mkrtchyan (Armenia)
Production: Yelizaveta Petrosyan

Post-Production Award
The Passport - Rakan Mayasi (Palestine/Jordan/Serbia/Germany)
Production: Zorana Mušikić

Short Cuts Nest
Best Short Film Project
Paid Mourners – Ovsanna Gevorgyan (Armenia)
Production: Vardan Hakobyan