Yesterday, the prestigious ceremony of awarding “Golden”, “Silver” apricots as well as a number of other awards took place in Yerevan, at The “Golden Apricot” 15th Jubilee International Film Festival.

The Ministry of Diaspora highly appreciates the significance and role of the Golden Apricot festival in Armenia’s cultural life, considering it not only as a festival of cinema, but also festival art and culture. It was for that reason that I told the organizers of the film festival a month ago that it would be a great honor for the Ministry of Diaspora to have at least a modest investment of contribution.

And here’s the first, but not the last time, at the jubilee film festival, the Ministry of Diaspora handed a special prize to young Armenian film directors. The first prize winner was French-Armenian talented director Arnaud Khayadjanian for the film “We are Our Mountains.”

I also gave a short speech in which I particularly thanked the organizers, sponsors, and congratulated all of us on the 15th anniversary of Golden Apricot.