Gerald Papasian to Host 9th Annual Golden Apricot Film Festival, July 8-15

Multilingual International actor/director Gerald Papasian is among the guests of honor of the 9th Golden Apricot International Film Festival, invited to host, in three languages, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Festival in Yerevan, July 8-15th.

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

Gerald Papasian is no stranger to the film and theatre 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 prestation of Sojourn at Ararat. He is an Honorary Member of the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre of Armenia and was recently awarded the highest artisitc recognitions, namely the Presidential “Movses Khorenatsi” medal and the Ministry of Culture of Armenia’s 20th anniversary Gold medal.

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 et Luc Darndenne, the Italian brothers Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, Yann Raymond of UniFrance Films International, Yuri Mechitov Photographer and close friend of Parajanov, Christa Meindersma director of the Prince Claus Foundation (Holland).

Among 70 countries and 1120 films presented this year, participating Filmmakers in attendance whose films are in competition include Victor Erice, Valerie Massadian, Alexander Sokurov amongst others. To hail the “Unesco’s Yerevan world capital of books -2012” the Golden Apricot festival‘s slogan this year is “Book and cinema”.

Gerald Papasian adapted and staged Dikran Tchouhadjian’s Garine, in French as a world premiere at the Théâtre St. Maur in Paris and the Théâtre 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 Compagnie Irina Brook of which he is a founding member, and for filming the multi- award-winning short film “Le Piano”by Levon Minasian.

After culminating a 7-year International touring period in the Compagnie Irina Brook with performances at the prestigious Théâtre de Paris, Gerald performed in two plays, “L’Albatros” by Fabrice Melquiot (2011) and in “Terrain Vague”byAlexandre Romanès (2012). He also played an important part in the short film “Last Winter”directed by Maeva Poinsignon, produced in the UK (2012). Just announced, Shakespeare’s "Waiting for the Dream" directed by Irina Brook, where Papasian plays a major role, has been nominated best performancce of the year in Montreal.