Հայերեն
The “Apricot Tree” film festival never limited itself to a fixed format and always seeking new ways of updating it. If in 2015 the festival took place in Yerevan, then in 2016 the festival geography expanded to Ujan and Gyumri, and since 2017, with the support of our dear deceased friend, Martin Adoyan, “Apricot Tree” took root in Ujan, realizing a unique rural film festival project in Armenia. In Ujan, we regularly implemented big and small innovations every year, until finally in 2022 the grandest edition of the festival came about.
Now we are entering a new, logical stage in the development of the festival, and we are relocating from Ujan to the village of Debet in the Lori Province of Armenia, where the 9th “Apricot Tree” International Documentary Film Festival will take place in August 2023. Although one of the most important components of the festival will remain unchanged – all participants will live in the houses of the villagers – the key change will be the longer distances from the big cities and the involvement of new communities in festival activities. From the very beginning, we declared the decentralization of the film industry in Armenia as one of our primary goals, and this step will be in favor of that. The Martin Adoyan Special Award will remain among the main prizes of our festival.
We are immensely grateful to all our friends and colleagues in Ujan for helping us make the festival a reality over the past 6 years. In particular, we express our sincere gratitude to the entire Adoyan family, Daniel Azatyan, Nairi Kirakosyan, Nairi Manvelyan, Razmik and Ruben Sargsyan’s, Gurgen Shahinyan, Sevada Petrosyan, Paylak Hakobyan, Taguhi Simonyan, Khachik Harutyunyan, Gor Harutyunyan and all those, who hosted festival participants in their homes. We hope that our ties with Ujan will not end here and our cooperation will carry on in the future within the frames of other projects.