Feature Competition

Tigran Mansuryan was born in Beirut. His family moved to Armenia in 1940s. Mansuryan studied first at the Romanos Melikian Music School (1956-60, Edward Baghdasaryan’s course), and then at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (1960-65, Ghazaros Saryan’s course). Later, in 1967, he completed also his PhD under the supervision of Ghazaros Saryan. In 1967-86, he was a teacher of Modern Music Theory in Conservatory. He became professor of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory in 1986. In 1992-95, he was the Rector of the Komitas Conservatory. Mansuryan was one of the pioneers of modern music in former Soviet Union, and first to introduce modern compositional techniques to Armenia. He is the author of great range of compositions: a ballet, concertos, chamber music, string quartets, sonatas, vocal and choral compositions, film soundtracks (The Color of Pomegranates, A piece if Sky, We and Our Mountains, Snow in Black, The Song of the Old Days, Tango of Our Childhood; theatre soundtracks (King John, Hatsavan, Big Silence, etc.). Mansurian’s music delicately complements the film with its tender melody and lyricism. His music has been performed in the most prominent concert halls of the world, including London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, etc. Tigran Mansuryan was appointed RA Public Council member by the President decree in 2016.

Fred Kelemen was born in West Berlin/Germany in 1964. He studied painting, music, philosophy, religious science and drama studies and worked in various theatres as a director’s assistant before beginning his studies in directing and cinematography at the German Film & TV Academy Berlin (dffb) from 1989 to 1994. For his diploma film Fate he received the German National Film Award in 1995. Since then, he has made a number of films and videos as director and collaborated as cinematographer with several film directors like Joseph Pitchhadze (Sweets, 2013), Béla Tarr (Journey to the Plain, 1995, The Man from London, 2007, The Turin Horse, 2011 ), Rudolf Thome (The Visible and the Invisible, 2006), Gariné Torossian (Stone, Time, Touch, 2005). Since 1995, he has worked as an associate professor and has given master classes and lectures at the following institutions: Centre of Cinematographical Studies of Catalania (C.E.C.C.) in Barcelona/Spain, College of Fine Arts (ESBAG) in Geneva/Switzerland, Harvard University/USA, Kidderminster College/England, Latvian Cultural Academy (LKA) in Riga, University of Santiago de Chile - Department of the Arts and Sciences of Visual Medias, Thammasat University Bangkok/Thailand, German Film and TV Academy Berlin (dffb)/Germany, Tel Aviv University – Department of Film and Television/Israel, National School of Fine Arts (ENBA) Lyon/France, Film Factory Sarajevo/Bosnia-Hercegovina and at the HBK Saar in Saarbrücken, Germany. Retrospectives of his work have been presented at places like the Anthology Film Archives, New York, the Tate Modern London, the Hungarian National Film Theatre Budapest and at cinematheques, film museums and film festivals worldwide. With his film production company Kino Kombat Filmmanufactur he produced his film Krisana/Fallen (Latvia, 2005) and he produced or co-produced the films Moskatchka by Annett Schütze (Latvia, 2005) and Fragment by Gyula Maár (Hungary, 2007) and Hand in Hand by Jana Marsik (Latvia/Gemany, 2008). Fred Kelemen is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)/USA, the European Film Academy (EFA), the German Film Academy and of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP).

Festival director, producer, distributor, exhibitor. From 1992 through 1999, he was director and programmer of the Cinema House, the most important art house cinema in Bulgaria. In 1997, he founded Sofia IFF, considered as the leading film festival in Bulgaria and one of key film events in CentEast Europe. Since 2000. Kitanov has produced and co-produced more than 15 films, which received national and international recognition, most acclaimed of which is The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner (2008) by Stefan Komandarev (shortlisted for Foreign Language Oscar, more than 30 international awards, sold in more than 100 territories). Over the last 15 years Kitanov has released in Bulgaria more than 80 European and independent films by directors as Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke, Francois Ozon, Fatih Akin, Lars von Trier, Aki Kaurismaki, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ken Loach, Terry Gilliam, Dardenne Brothers, Danis Tanovic, Kornel Mundruczo, Andrei Zviagintzev. Kitanov was a member of juries in Venice, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Moscow, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Thessaloniki, Mediawave, Torun, Vologda, European Film Academy and European Parliament. In 2012, Kitanov received the Award of Europa Cinemas for Best Entrepreneur of the year and in 2016, he received Golden Age Star Award by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. He is a member of the European Film Academy.

Pierre Léon was born in Moscow in 1959. His mother was Russian and his father was French. He moved to Paris in 1975. His first film, Lost, was released in 1981. After Two Serious Ladies in 1988, he starts to make films in a constant pace - in video (Li Per Li, 1994, Uncle Vania, 1997) or in 16 mm (The Teenager, 2000). He is also translator (Tsvetayeva, Blok), critic (a member of editorial council of Trafic), and actor in the films of Jean-Claude Biette, Louis Skorecki, Serge Bozon, Anne Benhaïem, Jean-Charles Fitoussi, Pascal Bonitzer, Bertrand Bonello and Rita Azeveido Gomes. He came back to Locarno in 2015 with Two Remi, Two, which was selected for Viennale, Belo Horizonte, Mar del Plata, Colombo, Seville et Saint-Pétersbourg.

Homayoun Ershadi started acting in Taste of Cherry, which was awarded the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes IFF. Since, he played in almost 40 films, 5 TV series, 20 short films, and 3 plays. The most important films are the Taste of Cherry and Pear Tree, which won the Silver Hugo Award at Chicago IFF. Homayoun Ershadi was in the jury for Yas IFF in Iran, Beirut IFF and Iranian House of Cinema.