Last November the 2nd International Film Festival for Children and Young People was held in Yerevan, Armenia. It was organized by the Armenian Rolan Bykov Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Culture RA and the patronage of Mrs. Bella Kocharyan, Armenia’s First Lady. Nune Manukyan, President of the Armenian Rolan Bykov Foundation directed the event.

Children from various regions of Armenia came by bus to the “Moscow” cinema, one of Yerevan’s oldest cultural landmarks, to see films and meet famous guests and jury members. The Festival also included Art Meetings and Master Classes with guests from Poland, Russia. As part of Masters of the Film Industry for children, participants were invited to the Arabkir’s Center for the Protection of Children’s Health where films were screened for children with serious illness.

In all, 44 films from 18 countries were presented to Armenian children including 21 films in competition. The CIFEJ Prize was awarded to “Don” by Arend Steenbergen (Netherlands). “Don” also won the Children’s Jury Prize. The Grand Prix went to “Greenhouse Effect” by Valery Akhadov (Russia). CIFEJ President Athina Rikaki (Greece) chaired the CIFEJ international jury. Other CIFEJ jury members were Arnaud Vigneron, Cinema et Audiovisuel Conseil General Cotes d’Armoe (France), Piotr Zalewski (Poland), Nodar Begiashvili (Georgia) and Ara Ernjakyan, Gayane Martirosyan and Rafael Kotanjyan from Armenia.

Encouraged by the success of the festival the foundation decided to create a second phase and a week later free screenings were organized in various regions of Armenia and Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh) reaching as many as 10 000 children. It is looking forward to another edition in the fall of 2007.

CIFEJ INFO 2006