The European Film Festival award ceremony was held at Sergei Parajanov Museum in Yerevan on Tuesday.
New award-winning films from 11 European member states were screened in Armenia, four films were aired in Armenia’s Shirak and Dilijan provinces, discussions and trainings were organized by EU member states embassies. Four international specialists were brought to Armenia, who held meetings and discussions with the Armenian audience.
The awards have been broken in several categories: EU&Me photo contest, Screenwriting competition for the emerging talents and Documentary Storytelling with a Personal Voice.
Paul Fraser, a UK specialist in cinematography held the 5-day workshop on Screenwriting, the participants of the 5-day workshop presented their outcomes of the workshop to the jury. UK Ambassador to Armenia Ms Judith Farnworth handed over the awards to Harutyun Virabyan, Nairi Haghverdi and Artavazd Yeghiazaryan.
Johanna Bernhardson, a Swedish filmmaker specializing in short documentaries and essay-films, conducted a three-day training session for learners at TUMO as a tool for creative networking aimed at the improvement of their documentary storytelling skills.
The best piece of work was selected at the workshop. The award was handed over by Mr. Martin Fredriksson, Charge d' affaires of the Swedish Embassy to Vahe Sargsyan, Maria Sargsyan, Lia Karapetyan.
EU ambassador to Armenia Pyotr Switalski expressed his gratitude to the organizers for holding such an event in Armenia.
“This is the first EU film festival after a long break. This festival has brought something new to the calendar of cultural events in Armenia and was very useful for the Armenian audience. As I promised at the beginning, European movies have a special grant and sometimes they were not so easy to digest,” the EU envoy said adding “the purpose of this festival is also to make the bridge between Armenia and the rest of us even stronger.”
The event was also attended by EU member states’ ambassadors, guests of the festival and representatives of partner organizations.
