Following the situation surrounding the screening of Armenian animated films in the Annecy Classics programme of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, KinoPress contacted Kissani Films to request the company’s position.
Ani Hamel, representing Kissani Films, responded to KinoPress. According to her, Kissani Films has been working for more than a year with the Cinémathèque Française on a project to restore nine Armenian animated films.
The project, according to the letter, concerns Armenian animated films without dialogue, made before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hamel says the project was presented to David Banuchyan, Director of the Cinema Foundation of Armenia, Armen Sargsyan, Head of the Legal Department, and Lilit Arakelyan and Susanna Harutyunyan, who are responsible for international relations.
According to Kissani Films, the project was received with enthusiasm by the Armenian side. The letter also states that the Cinémathèque Française allocated a significant amount of funding for the restoration work.
Hamel says the Cinema Foundation received, several months ago, a tripartite agreement drafted by the Cinémathèque Française between the Cinémathèque Française, the Cinema Foundation and Kissani Films. According to the company, the Foundation has not moved forward with the document.
“The Cinema Foundation of Armenia has given no response,” Hamel said, adding that there was also no reply to several follow-ups from the Cinémathèque Française.
According to Hamel, the Cinémathèque Française later learned that the Cinema Foundation was presenting nine Armenian animated films at the Annecy festival, three of which, according to Kissani Films, are part of the same restoration project.
Kissani Films says it then contacted the Annecy festival’s programming director, asking for those three films to be removed and stating that the remaining six could be screened free of charge.
“We are not demanding anything for these films. We are turning a blind eye to the disregard of our rights and the violation of our contract,” the response sent to KinoPress states. The contract referred to is the agreement between Kissani Films and the Armenfilm studio.
Hamel also says that neither the Cinema Foundation of Armenia nor any other Armenian institution contacted Kissani Films regarding the titles presented in the Annecy Classics programme.
The company stresses that the dispute is not about a claim to rights over 265 films. According to Kissani Films, the issue concerns three films presented in Annecy that are part of a joint restoration project with the Cinémathèque Française involving nine Armenian animated films.
