Aurora Humanitarian Initiative announces the jury of the Aurora Short Film Competition launched on December 20, 2016. The diverse panel of professionals will select the best short films featuring humanism, courage and selflessness.
The Aurora Short Film Competition Jury is comprised of 5 members chaired by director Edgar Baghdasaryan.
“Every generation has an illusion that they live in a special time. We are not an exception. And we can merely convey culture to the next generations after us and nothing else. The base of culture is humanism and love in its comprehensive sense. This is why we are part of this very special competition,” said Edgar Baghdasaryan.
The members of the jury are Diana Kardumyan, film director, Aren Malakyan, film director, Marine Ales, composer, member of the Aurora Prize Creative Council and Arman Jilavian, CEO, Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. The detailed bios of the jury members are presented below.
Aurora Humanitarian Initiative will award US$4000 to the director of the best film. Second and third places will receive US$2000 and US$1500 award respectively. The deadline for submissions is March 20, 2017. More information about the competition is available here.
Competition Jury
Edgar Baghdasaryan (Chairperson) – Edgar Baghdasaryan is well known film director. Since 1988 he has worked for ArmenFilm studio, in 1990 he debuted with “Games” movie. Until 2009 he was the director of Armenian-American film studio “Armenia Film Studios”. He directed award-winning documentary “From Ararat to Zion”. Edgar Baghdasaryan is a laureate of a number of international film festivals.
Marine Ales – Marine Ales is a composer and theatre critic. She is the author of 300 songs in Armenian and Russian. Her songs were released in 5 albums: I’ll Leave You (1999), My Poplars (2001), Thoughts (2003), With and Without You (2007), Barefoot in the Sky (2010). She was jury member of the 2016 Golden Apricot International Film Festival. Marine Ales is co-founder of Gift of Life Foundation. She is the laureate of numerous awards for life-time achievements. In 2010, Marine Ales published the collection of her poetry Shards. Marine Ales is the member of the Aurora Prize Creative Council.
Arman Jilavian – Arman Jilavian leads Aurora Humanitarian Initiative as CEO. He is a member of the Board of Directors at RVVZ Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees of UWC Dilijan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of MEDIACRAT. In 2011, he was named the Media Manager of Russia in the Printed Media / Magazines category. Arman Jilavian graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State Universtiy with a PhD in philology. He has held various positions in Russia’s leading media groups (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Eurasian Media Group) and managed the Time Inc.’s business in Russia (FORTUNE and Popular Science magazines).
Diana Kardumyan – Diana Kardumyan is a film director. She was a jury member for "ReAnimania" (2011) and "One Minute, One Shot" (2012, 2015), "WebApricot" (2014) festivals, also worked as the pre-selection jury at the "Golden Apricot" (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016) and "ReAnimania" (2010, 2013, 2015) international festivals. She directed a number of documentaries and fictions including “Endless Melody”, “Dialogues”, “Eh Dima, Dima.”
Aren Malakyan – Aren Malakian is a young film director. He graduated Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema. Aren directed a number of fiction and documentary films including “Voldemar”, “Snow”. In 2015 he received presidential award for his “Girl on the moon” film. He is a laureate of many Armenian and international film festivals.