Turkish director Reha Erdem has taken the top award for his “Kosmos” film (Turkey/Bulgaria) in the international feature film competition at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival, which ended in Armenian capital Yerevan on Sunday.

As many as 500 applications from around the world had been made for participation in the seventh international film festival held in Armenia annually since 2004. In the end, a total of 120 of these applications had been selected for shows, including 45 films for participation on a competitive basis during the festival held July 11-18. Competion was held in three sections, with a five-member panel of international judges deciding which films to award prizes.

This year cinema critics have kept repeating one thought – Turkish cinema is going through great development, creating original and interesting products.
Cinema critic Artsvi Bakhchinyan singles out the winning film, noting that one could feel the filmmaker’s strong hand in the creation of the film environment, characters and action.

Bakhchinyan is convinced that Erdem’s reckless characters are somewhat reminiscent of well-known Serbian film director Emir Kusturica’s characters.

Russian director Pavel Kostomarov’s film “Together” has won an award for the Best International Documentary and in the Armenian Panorama Competition the prize-winning film was “The Last Tightrope Performer in Armenia” by Arman Yeritsyan and Inna Sahakyan.

The FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Jury Award has gone to Jasmila Zbanic for the film “On the Path” (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Austria/Croatia/Germany). The Ecumenical Jury Award has been given to Suren Babayan, from Armenia, for his film “Don’t Look in the Mirror”.

The film festival was held with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia. Its general sponsor was the VivaCell-MTS company.