movie Archives

Iranian-Armenian film to screen at Burgas International Festival

July 18, 2018 by administrator

The feature movie ‘Yeva’, written and directed by Iranian-Armenian Anahid Abad will go on screen in the competition section of the Burgas International Film Festival, Mehr News Agency reports.

The film is about a young woman named Yeva who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh after her husband’s tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). Yeva is a complete stranger in the village and is obliged to live her daily life in disguise.

Abad’s film is co-produced by Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation and the National Cinema Center of Armenia.

‘Yeva’ has won the Audience Choice Award at the 12th annual Pomegranate Film Festival (POM).

Burgas International Film Festival aims to develop a sustainable platform for presentation of feature and documentary movies by acquainting the audience with the modern cinema art of the Black Sea countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Greece).

The main scope of the Festival is to present the current trends in the Bulgarian and international cinema practice and to provoke intercultural dialogue. The third edition will be held from 20th till 27th of July at Open-air stage “The Snail”, “Sea Casino” Cultural center, St. Anastasia island.

Armenian director’s Karabakh movie named best at Pomegranate fest

November 22, 2017 by administrator

The feature film “The Last Inhabitant” by Armenian filmmaker Jivan Avetisyan about the ongoing conflict in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) was named the best feature film in Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.

The movie was among the 40 other films submitted for consideration, with Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Arsinee Khanjian, actor/producer Dean Cain, Montel Williams and many others in attendance.

Avetisyan’s eighth feature film, “The Last Inhabitant” centers around Abgar, the only Armenian of Christian faith left in the village of Gyurjevan, now devastated and in near ruins, after everyone else has been deported. Because of his skills as a stonemason, he is assigned to help build a mosque by the Azeri occupants. He also has to take care of his daughter Yurga, traumatized after witnessing her husband’s murder. As the situation deteriorates around them with increasing enemy danger and lack of food, they find solace in their memories of an idealized past, when peace and happiness still prevailed. The last resort for those who have not much to hope for. With its often elegiac and poetic approach the film is able to achieve a touching portrait of survival and at the same time humanizing the protagonists and their fate, how tragic it may be.

Earlier, the film was named the best feature film by the Scandinavian International Film Festival, while actor Aleksandr Khachatryan, meanwhile, won the best actor award in Finland.

New Armenian Genocide movie’s (Caravan) director is forced to withdraw film from Turkey cinemas

October 14, 2017 by administrator

The director of the movie “Kervan (Caravan) 1915,” which is about Armenian Genocide and which hit the large screens in Turkey several days ago, has announced that he is forced to remove the film from the country’s cinemas.

Turkey’s movie theaters are deliberately showing this film by director İsmail Güneş only in the early morning, and this has made the director to withdraw the film from the cinemas, according to Cumhuriyet (Republic) daily of Turkey.

Güneş stated that some forces obstructed him in every way during the shooting of this movie, and this continues to this day. The director stressed that cinemas in Turkey deliberately show his movie solely once in the morning so that only few people would watch it.

“For that reason, I have to call the film back from movie theaters,” he added.

As reported earlier, the Turkish director of “Kervan 1915” had said this film does not attempt to show whether or not there was genocide, but it just tells the story of a coachman, who was instructed to transfer 200 Armenians from Giresun to Aleppo, during which he “selflessly” defends the Armenians who were “entrusted” to him, from the attacks by bandits.

The director of the movie had stressed that on their way from Giresun to Aleppo, the characters of the film also witness scenes of massacres.

Armenian Movie Week kicks off in Iran

July 24, 2017 by administrator

The Armenian Movie Week officially launched in the House of Artists of Iran on Sunday, in attendance of Ambassador of Armenia to Iran Artashes Tumanyan, the Embassy staff, as well as Armenian filmmakers Aram Shahbazyan and Aren Vatyan, together with a large number of guests.

As the press service of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Panorama.am, the participants were briefed on the films featured in the weeklong program of the Armenia Movie Week, slated for July 23-29 in the Iranian cities of Tehran, Mashhad and Shiraz.

Ambassador Artashes Tumanyan also delivered remarks at the event, touching upon the path of the Armenian cinema, as well as Armenian-Iranian cultural ties.

The opening ceremony was followed by the screening of the movie “Moskvitch, My Love” by Aram Shahbazyan. Afterwards a joint discussion was held with the participation of Armenian film directors, focusing on the history of the Armenian cinema and the perspectives of Armenian-Iranian cooperation in film industry.

Armenian Genocide movie ‘The Promise’ screens at Vatican

April 5, 2017 by administrator

Variety – “The Promise,” a movie about the Armenian genocide, screened at the Vatican on Tuesday with director Terry George, producer Eric Esrailian and some talent in attendance, in a clear sign of Catholic Church support ahead of the film’s upcoming U.S. release.

The big-budget epic was bankrolled by late billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. Its lead actors, Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, did not make the trek to Vatican City, but the intimate event held for Vatican officials in the 50-seat Vatican Cinematheque’s screening room was attended by stars Shohreh Aghdashloo and James Cromwell and by singer-songwriter Chris Cornell, who composed the theme song.

The Vatican screening comes after Pope Francis last year made his first visit to Armenia. During the visit, he used the term “genocide” to describe the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

The pope’s remark sparked an angry reaction by the Turkish government, which strongly denies that a genocide occurred, arguing that it was wartime and many Turks were killed as well and insisting there was never a systematic plan to execute Armenians.

Esrailian, head of Survival Pictures, which he set up with Kerkorian to produce “The Promise,” traveled to Armenia for the papal visit.

“When he [Pope Francis] mentioned the word ‘genocide’ once in the big Mass, you could hear a kind of collective gasp and people getting tearful because he spoke really as a world leader,” Esrailian recalled. He noted that Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, “so it has a special place in Catholicism.”

“When there was awareness [within the Vatican] that a major film was being made, we were contacted to screen the movie. So we sent a private link to be viewed,” he said.

“The Promise,” which world-premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September, will go on wide release in the U.S. on 2,000 screens via Open Road Films on April 21.

The roughly $100-million film is considered a breakthrough after several attempts to make a Hollywood film about the Armenian genocide failed during past decades because of what director Terry George calls a “denialist lobby,” which these days is efficiently run by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he claims.

George said there was a denialist propaganda machine behind “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” a film with strikingly similar elements to “The Promise,” but which allegedly takes the side of the denialists. “Ottoman Lieutenant” went on release via New York-based Paladin on roughly 200 screens in the U.S. in March.

“It’s an Erdogan propaganda film released as a feature film in the United States, remarkably, just ahead of us,” the director said. “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” which stars Josh Hartnett and Ben Kingsley, was produced by a Turkish company called Eastern Sunrise Films.

Variety critic Dennis Harvey, in his review of “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” wrote that, “[in] this primarily Turkish-funded production, the historical, political, ethnic and other intricacies — not to mention that perpetual elephant in the room, the Armenian Genocide, which commenced in 1915 — are glossed over in favor of a generalized ‘Whattaya gonna do… war is bad’ aura that implies conscience without actually saying anything.”

“The Promise” faces its own challenges, including tepid reviews. Variety critic Peter Debruge called it “a sloggy melodrama in which the tragedy of a people is forced to take a back seat to a not especially compelling love triangle.”

“The Promise” centers on a love story involving a medical student (Isaac), a journalist (Bale), and the Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon) who steals their hearts. All three find themselves grappling with the Ottomans’ decision to begin rounding up and persecuting Armenians.

“The construct of the love triangle is clearly there for people who are unaware of the genocide or not particularly that interested in it,” said George. “It’s a big, old-fashioned love story. I think we’ve created a classic form of story, and hopefully women in particular will be entertained by it,” the director added.

As part of its marketing strategy, Survival Pictures has launched a #KeepThePromise social impact campaign for which it has already recruited Elton John, Barbara Streisand, Andre Agassi, Cher, Sylvester Stallone, among others, for an anti-genocide call to action connected to the film which has a strong philanthropic aspect. Survival Pictures’ cut of the box office will go to charities including The Sentry, the non-profit group co-founded by George Clooney and activist and author John Prendergast.

Armenian Genocide movie gets 55,126 1-star ratings on IMDb off just three public screenings – The Independent

October 25, 2016 by administrator

By Christopher Hooton

Either there are some absolutely enormous cinemas that I’ve somehow never heard about, or IMDb users are voting politically on The Promise without having seen it.

The Terry George-directed film stars Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac and is set during the final days of the Ottoman Empire, leading up to the Armenian Genocide that killed 1.5 million.

At the time of writing, it has 86,704 ratings on IMDb, 55,126 of which are one-star and 30,639 of which are 10-star, with very few ratings falling anywhere in between. The majority of votes come from males outside the US.
The Promise is believed to have only been screened to the public three times (we have contacted production company Survival Pictures for confirmation on this).

Armenian Diaspora communities have long been campaigning for recognition of the genocide by governments around the world. In 2010, a US congressional panel narrowly voted that the incident was indeed a genocide, a decision the Turkish government criticised, saying it had been accused of a crime it “had not committed”.

It is IMDb’s policy not to interfere with user ratings, but many have called for the database to step in.

Snowden movie premiered in New York

September 14, 2016 by administrator

Shailene Woodley looks gorgeous while joining Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the red carpet at the premiere of their movie Snowden on Tuesday (September 13) in New York City, Justjared.com reports.
The co-stars were joined at the premiere by the film’s other stars Zachary Quinto, Scott Eastwood, Keith Stanfield, Ben Schnetzer, and director Oliver Stone.
Also stepping out to show their support were Sean Penn, Michelle Monaghan, and Zachary‘s boyfriend Miles McMillan.
Earlier in the day, the cast stepped out while doing promo around the city.

Karabakh movie “Tevanik” awarded at Hollywood Moving Pictures Festival

July 6, 2016 by administrator

“Tevanik”, a trilogy dedicated to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was named the winner of the Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival’s June 2016 Edition, Director Jivan Avetisyan said in a Facebook post.

“Congratulations on being a winner on the 2nd best reviewed Film Festival in FilmFreeway, HIMPFF,” Avetisyan cited a letter as saying.

“We are pleased to inform you that your project is a Winner at Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival, June 2016 Edition.”

Also, the movie is included in the competition program of VOICES film festival to be held in the Russian city of Volgograd on July 7-9.

Armenian “Orphans of the Genocide” movie selected for national PBS distribution

February 29, 2016 by administrator

207063 Documentary film production company Armenoid Productions announced Monday, February 29 that the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) has selected its award-winning “Orphans of the Genocide” documentary by Bared Maronian for national distribution to over 300 public television stations. The documentary is scheduled for national broadcast across PBS stations by April 24.

“I urge Armenian-Americans nationwide to contact their local public television station’s programming department to urge them to air the special 60-minute version of “Orphans of the Genocide” sponsored by NETA,” said Maronian. “This is a great honor that NETA has selected a documentary on the Armenian Genocide as part of their select number of programming recommendations to national PBS stations.”

The National Educational Telecommunications Association is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The four-time Regional Emmy Award winner filmmaker Maronian’s “Orphans of the Genocide” documentary has been previously screened on select PBS stations nationwide. The documentary weaves historical archives with interviews and memoirs of Armenian orphans establishing irrevocable proof of the Armenian Genocide.

Maronian is currently completing his new documentary project, “Women of 1915,” dealing with Armenian and non-Armenian women heroines who lived through the atrocities of WWI and survived to retell stories of strength, perseverance, and empowerment.

‘1915′ Movie Trailer, Poster Released #ArmenianGenocide

March 19, 2015 by administrator

‘1915’ movie poster

LOS ANGELES–In honor of the 100th anniversary of the forgotten genocide that ravaged the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey, Bloodvine Media, in conjunction with Strongman and mTuckman Media, plans to release “1915” in theaters on April 17 and on demand April 22, 2015.

The psychological thriller is directed by Armenians Garin Hovannisian (author of Family of Shadows) and Alec Mouhibian, and features a who’s who of Armenian cast and crew, including executive producer Raffi K. Hovannisian (Armenia’s first foreign minister), Grammy Award winning composer Serj Tankian (from the band System of a Down, soon to go on a tour dedicated to the Genocide), and actors Simon Abkarian (Casino Royale) and Angela Sarafyan (Twilight). The filmmakers will also join tens of thousands of Armenians on a march for justice on April 24 in Los Angeles to bring attention to the first genocide of modern history – which has been denied by the government of Turkey for an entire century. In Yerevan, a historic premiere is being planned at the Moscow Theatre for April 25.

“2015 marks not only the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, but also the close of an entire century of forgotten genocides,” said Garin Hovannisian. “‘1915’ is about denial – how we try to escape history, how history continues to haunt us. It is also about the need to face the ghosts of our own pasts.”

Exactly 100 years after the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, a mysterious director (Simon Abkarian) is staging a play at the Los Angeles Theatre to honor the victims of that tragedy – a horrifying crime forgotten and denied for an entire century. But as protesters surround his theatre, and a series of strange accidents spread panic among his producer (Jim Piddock) and actors (Angela Sarafyan, Sam Page, Nikolai Kinski), it appears that the director’s mission is profoundly dangerous, and the ghosts of the past are everywhere.

“1915” is directed and written by Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian, produced by Terry Leonard, Garin Hovannisian, and Alec Mouhibian, executive produced by Raffi K. Hovannisian, with original music by Serj Tankian (from the band System of a Down), cinematography by Leigh Lisbão Underwood, production design by Michael Fitzgerald, costume design by Lauren Oppelt, and editing by Dan Dobi and Paul Forte. The film stars Simon Abkarian, Angela Sarafyan, Sam Page, Nikolai Kinski, Debra Christofferson, and Jim Piddock. For more information, please join the 10,000 strong followers of the film on Facebook at www.facebook.com/1915themovie. You can pre-order the movie at www.1915themovie.com and instantly receive the haunting musical composition “1915 – The End Begins” from the original score by Grammy Award winning composer Serj Tankian.

The movie has been produced in partnership with the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) and the RVVZ / IDeA Foundation.

Release and Premiere
“1915” will open in select theaters across Southern California on April 17, in New York City on April 22, and in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 25. (The film will also be available on demand on April 22 across all platforms.) For a full list of theaters showing “1915,” see below or visit www.1915themovie.com.

In addition to its traditional release, “1915” has partnered with the innovative distribution company Tugg to bring screenings on-demand in cities and towns all over America. To see if “1915” is screening in your area, or to host a screening at a theater, community center, or campus near you, visit www.tugg.com/titles/1915.

A European Preview of “1915” will take place at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin, Germany, on April 5, headlining the prestigious theater’s groundbreaking six-week artistic commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. “1915” will then have its United States premiere at the historic Egyptian Theatre on April 13, in an event co-presented by the American Cinematheque and the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art (AFFMA). The highly-anticipated Armenia premiere will take place at Yerevan’s Moscow Theatre on April 25.

Traditional Release Theaters

Opening April 17
Laemmle’s Music Hall, Beverly Hills (CA)
Laemmle’s Town Center, Encino (CA)
Laemmle’s Playhouse, Pasadena (CA)
MGN Five Star Cinema, Glendale (CA)
Regency South Coast Village, Santa Ana (CA)

Opening April 22
Quad Cinema, New York (NY)

Opening April/May
United Artists Sierra Vista 6, Clovis / Fresno (CA)

Opening April 25
Moscow Cinema, Yerevan, Armenia
Cinema Star, Yerevan, Armenia