On January 8 at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia Zhanna Andreasyan summarized the results of the department’s work in 2024 and answered the questions of the media.
“It is necessary to highlight our work in the film industry – here I especially want to emphasize the creation of the Cinema Foundation of Armenia, which allows us to significantly improve the policy of strengthening competition in the field of transparency and accountability of a qualitatively new nature.” We have also done extensive legislative work on the bylaws arising from the Film Law. Several important government decisions were made during the year. “Of the films that received government funding, nine have participated in 24 international film festivals winning eleven awards and this year we are planning even more activity as we have also completely revised the competition rules and they will be approved soon,” the minister said in her speech.
Among the many issues raised during the 1 hour and 40 minute press conference, including the quality of education, the quantity of textbooks, their content, the quality of printing, the construction, equipping and refurbishing of schools, the elimination of the Goy Theater, whether or not to hold a Snoop Dogg concert, forcing teachers to ride bicycles and other pressing issues, the multifaceted problems of film industry were largely ignored.
There are no political conspiracies and contradictions in this industry, so journalists were not interested in what 9 films the Minister was talking about, when the new competitive procedure for selecting film projects will be approved, when the main procedures arising from the law on cinematography, because of which today the industry is partially paralyzed, and other questions arising from the speech. Of course, for such a large ministry, a press conference lasting 1 hour and 40 minutes is too short to cover the problems and issues of 5 subordinate areas.
KinoPress addressed the Minister regarding the Cinema Foundation of Armenia’s vision for the opening of cinemas and the use of the infrastructure of the cinemas previously operated by the Ministry.
Question:
“Films in Russian have been shown in Armenian cinemas for 30 years, this is due to the lack of cinemas, especially in the regions. You mentioned that the ministry is making great efforts to revitalize regional life and especially to preserve historical and cultural monuments. There are cinemas in the regions that are architectural monuments, but they are privatized property, and during these 30 years the property has been privatized. These cinemas are empty today. The reform program of the Cinema Foundation of Armenia states that there is a vision of opening cinemas, and I would like you to indicate how the Ministry will support this complex issue, as it is really difficult to return property that is actually non-returnable.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports emphasized that it is not a question of returning the property, but of forming venues for film screening in the regions. The Minister mentioned mobile cinemas, about which there is also a clause in the Foundation’s program.
I think it is fundamental that the requirement to demonstrate in the Armenian language should not come into force until 2030, as it was planned when [the law – ed.] was adopted, but much earlier – it should come into force today, it should have come into force long ago.
Zhanna Andreasyan
On paper this change may be successful, but in reality it is much more complicated. The Armenian market depends on two major foreign film distributors who are unwilling to provide Armenian translations of films due to lack of market (lack of cinemas and screens). In addition, Armenia lacks mechanisms to combat video piracy.
Speaking about the language of film screenings, the minister said that this year the agency overseeing the sphere will come out with a new legislative initiative and propose to edit the transitional provision of the Law “On Cinematography”, which makes translation mandatory from 2030. According to the minister, this requirement “needs to be implemented today, it should have been implemented a long time ago.”
Mobile cinemas may provide access to films in the regions, but they are not part of the urban infrastructure and cultural environment. They still function today in the private sector, thanks to which many cities show mostly comedy movies (e.g., “New Year’s Movie”, “Mistress of Fate”). And in the public sector, interest in mobile cinemas began in 2016-2017, when the Chinese Embassy provided the National Cinema Center of Armenia with four mobile cinemas free of charge.
The full statement of the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Anreasyan can be seen in the video.
