Paris based Armenian actor/director to host Golden Apricot Film Festival

Multilingual, international actor/director Gerald Papasian is among the guests of honor of the ninth Golden Apricot International Film Festival, invited to host, in three languages, the opening and closing ceremonies of the festival in Yerevan, July 8-15, The Armenia Mirror Spectator reported.


“I am happy that Festival Director Harutyun Khatchatryan invited me. It is an honor to host this event. It will be a challenge to auto translate and render my remarks accessible in all three languages,” Papasian said.


Papasian is no stranger to the film and theater circles in Armenia. A graduate of the National Institute of Theatre and Cinema of Armenia, Papasian has performed on stage and screen garnering awards from the Cinema and Theatre Guilds as well as The Armenian Writers’ Union for his presentation of “Sojourn at Ararat.” He is an honorary member of the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre of Armenia and was recently awarded the Presidential Movses Khorenatsi medal and the Ministry of Culture of Armenia’s 20th anniversary Gold medal in recognition of his artistic contributions.


This year, the Golden Apricot Festival Guest of Honor list includes Isabelle Huppert, Agnieszka Holland, whose latest film “In Darkness,” will be screened, the Belgian film maker brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Darndenne, the Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Yann Raymond of UniFrance Films International, photographer and close friend of Sergey Paradjanov, Yuri Mechitov and Christa Meindersm, a director of the Prince Claus Foundation (Holland).


A total of 1,120 films from 70 countries will be presented this year. Participating filmmakers include Victor Erice, Valerie Massadian and Alexander Sokurov. To mark the designation of Yerevan as a world capital for books by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultrual Organization (UNESCO), the festival’s slogan this year is “Book and the Cinema.”


Papasian adapted and staged Dikran Tchouhadjian’s “Garine,” in French as a world premiere at the Theatre St. Maur in Paris and the Theatre de l’Odeon in Marseille, where it was the opening of the 2010-2011 season.


His previous two visits to Armenia were on the occasion of performances with “Waiting for the Dream,” based on Shakespeare and “Somewhere … La Mancha” based on Cervantes with the Irina Brook Theater Company, of which he is a founding member, and for filming the award-winning short film, “Le Piano,” by Levon Minasian.


After completing a seven-year international tour with the Irina Brook Theater Company, with performances at the Theatre de Paris, he performed in two plays, “L’Albatros” by Fabrice Melquiot (2011) and in “Terrain Vague” by Alexandre Romanès (2012). He also played a part in the short film, “Last Winter,” directed by Maeva Poinsignon, produced in the UK (2012).