I have not yet shot my best film - Jafar Panahi 

ArmInfo. 21st Golden Apricot International Film Festival annually awards outstanding film figures  with the Thaler Parajanov Prize, which is awarded for their contribution to world cinema. During the closing ceremony of the film festival, which took place on July 13 at the House of Cinema, the Yerevan Film Award was awarded to the outstanding Iranian director, representative of the "new wave" of Iranian cinema, Jafar Panahi.

Panahi is one of the most titled directors in the world, however, 9  out of 10 of his films are banned in his homeland - Iran, although  they were awarded the most prestigious film awards. Panahi was placed  under house arrest without the right to film for 20 years, and then  into custody.

Coming on stage to present the award, director and artistic director  of Golden Apricot Karen Avetisyan shared an absolutely touching story  related to Jafar Panahi. He spoke of an old memory of watching the  Berlin Film Festival on TV 15 years ago, where there was an empty  chair in the audience with "Jafar Panahi" written on it. And on  stage, Isabella Rossellini read a letter from Panahi, concluded with  a verdict banning professional activity for 20 years. As Avetisyan  noted, in this letter the director said goodbye to cinema for 20  years and said that he would continue to make films in his  imagination. Panahi said he hopes that during this time he will see  films that will address the themes that he raised in his films. And  after 20 years, he will see a somewhat changed world, where freedom,  democracy and pluralism of opinions and human rights will occupy a  stronger place. Because cinema is more to him than just cinema.

He said that he saw an interview with Sergei Parajanov during the  Hamburg Film Festival, where the director admitted that he was  thinking about death. Panahi was very surprised by this fact. He said  that he managed to visit the museum of Sergei Parajanov, where he saw  many works that contained so many subtleties and details containing  history.

Note that the 21st Golden Apricot Film Festival was dedicated to the  100th anniversary of Sergei Parajanov and Charles Aznavour. The guest  of honor this year was the legendary American actor, winner of an  Oscar, Golden Globe and other prestigious awards, Kevin Spacey. Among  the famous guests are also Alexander Payne, Tarsem Singh, Atom  Egoyan, Maxim Vitorgan, Anton Dolin and others.

"Golden Apricot" was held this year with the support of the Ministry  of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia and the Yerevan  City Hall. Support for holding the film festival was also provided by  the French Embassy in Armenia, the French Institute, the Embassy of  the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Armenia and the Goethe Institute.

The founders of the film festival are Harutyun Khachatryan, Mikael  Stamboltsyan and Susanna Harutyunyan. Director and artistic director  of the film festival Karen Avetisyan.