National Film Awards will be held in Yerevan in February 2012 with Orange Armenia support

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian National Film Center, Orange Armenia and National Film Development Fund announced today their joint initiative to create the National Film Awards, an annual open contest of the Armenian filmmakers.

It aims to foster and develop national film industry, disclose new names, bring the Armenian audience back to cinemas, get together film workers, support new projects of film industry and preserve the best practices of national film industry.

Aram Mkrtchyan, Orange Armenia Marketing Director, said: “Cinema is at the heart of sponsorship activities of Orange. It’s already more than 6 months that we launched Orange Kino service which aims at boosting the interest towards cinema, which is more and more evident every day. Orange also has a huge international experience of supporting cinema: our company is the official partner of Cannes international film festival since more than 10 years and the title sponsor of BAFTA british film festival since already 6 years. The Armenian cinema has rich traditions and a considerable “school” and so we are happy to be the official partner of this Award since the very first time, as we believe in bright future of Armenian cinema”
 
The jury of the Awards composed of celebrated film and cultural workers will award the National Film Prize after two voting phases. In the first phase the jury will choose 2-3 film nominees for each nomination category. In the second phase the names of the winners will be announced. National Film Awards prizes will be awarded for 12 nomination categories, including, best picture, best director, best cameraman, best screenwriter, best artist, best music, best female actress, best male actor in a leading role, best short film, best documentary feature, best animated film, best debut of the year. Besides main nomination categories a special prize will be awarded for the contribution to the Armenian film development.  

Every year, the Jury will evaluate the films made during the previous year. An exception will be made only for the first Awards, as it will summarize the whole cinema production of the first 20 years of independent Armenia.

According to the rules of the Awards only the films having been made in Armenia in the period of 1991-2011 can participate in the first awards. In future not only the films made in the RA, but also those with Armenian themes and filmed by Armenian directors can participate in the Awards.

The jury of 11 members will assess the films participating in the Awards. Decision for each nomination category will be made by simple majority of votes. Voting is secret. In case of equal “for” and “against” votes, the chairman of the jury will be entitled to a deciding vote. According to the rules of the Awards, if any of jury members have participated in production of any of the nominated films, that member shall not have the right to vote for that nomination category.
All participants will receive prizes and diplomas.

Participant films should be submitted to National Cinema Center of Armenia from October 1 till December 15, 2011.

By the decision of the organizers, a contest will be held for the design of the Prize and its logo.