NEWS

Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) Dr. Salim M. AlMalik will pay a visit to Azerbaijan to discuss joint cooperation between the organization and Azerbaijan in the educational, scientific and cultural spheres.

The delegation led by Dr. AlMalik will meet with Azerbaijani officials in Baku and visit a number of historical and cultural sites of Azerbaijan.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik affirmed that the visit is part of the distinct relations between ICESCO and Azerbaijan, and the two sides’ keenness to develop them in light of ICESCO’s new vision. The visit also comes amid the special attention ICESCO attaches to the valorization, preservation, and inscription of cultural and historical treasures in the Member States on the Islamic World Heritage List. It is within the framework of the Organization’s commitment to revive the Islamic heritage in its various aspects to link generations and build shared historic accounts to allow for future anticipation.

The Louvre museum in Paris - home to the Mona Lisa and other world famous works of art - suffered a 72 percent drop in visitors in 2020 compared to 2019, as a result of the COVID crisis, according to Reuters.

The Louvre said in a statement on Friday that its overall visitor numbers for 2020 stood at 2.7 million. The museum, like many around the world, had to shut for much of last year due to restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

Azerbaijani broadcaster iTV have made an open call for potential Eurovision 2021 songs for Samira Efendi.

All entries must be sent to song@eurovision.az no later than January 19th. The winning song is expected to be chosen internally by the broadcaster.

Eurovision 2021 song should not exceed 3 minutes. The song must be sent in a demo version in a ready-made form.  

The compositions (lyrics and music) must not have been commercially released before September 1, 2021. Notably, Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was canceled amid coronavirus pandemic. However, fans of music contest had a great a chance to enjoy a spectacular show "Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light", featuring 41 songs of this year's entries.

During the show, Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2020 participant Samira Efendi thrilled Eurovision fans with song "Cleopatra".

As the singer says, Cleopatra is a song about trusting your gut instinct, standing up for yourself and being a "Queen" - even when things get tough and especially if someone betrays or hurts you.

"It is truly a song about freedom, a celebration of all cultures and all sexualities and it's a song that is meant to inspire people to be who they are and to be proud of themselves - just as Cleopatra was. She was a queen who went through love, heartbreak, and betrayal, but she stood up for herself and is now remembered as an icon of strength and femininity," she said.

Azerbaijan marked its debut in 2008 with the duo of Elnur and Samir, who managed to become eighth in the final with their song "Day after day".

The brilliant duet of Aysel and Arash, which represented Azerbaijan next year, took the third place at the song contest, while Safura Alizada, who represented the country at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo, became fifth.

On its fourth attempt with Ell and Nikki's "Running Scared" song, the Land of Fire won the event, bringing the contest to Baku’s Crystal Hall in 2012. Ell and Nikki were the first mixed-gender duo to win the contest since 1963 and the first winners from Azerbaijan.

It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan reached the Top 5 in five consecutive contests - 3rd in 2009, 5th in 2010, 1st in 2011, 4th in 2012, and 2nd in 2013.

In 2018, Aysel Mammadova brilliantly performed at Eurovision 2018 semi-final, but she couldn't make it to the final. The singer represented Azerbaijan with the song "X My Heart".

Azerbaijan's Chingiz Mustafayev impressed all Eurovision fans with his stunning performance last year. The singer finished in the eighth place at the song contest.

"My Little Prince" animated film by Azanfilm studio has been nominated for the 12th Hsin-Yi Children’s Animation Awards Film Festival to be held in Taiwan on January 16-24.

Founded in 2009, the festival aims at encouraging animators and filmmakers to create animated stories for young audiences.

The festival aims at improving both the quality of short films targeted at children.

"My Little Prince" film was inspired by the works of young artist Maryam Alakbarli, dedicated to the novel with the same name.

Maryam Alakbarli has nearly 30 works inspired by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s work "The Little Prince".

These paintings were demonstrated in a number of prestigious exhibition halls. The animated film was created under the influence of these works.

A very talented creative team worked on the animated film, including director Arif Maharramov, scriptwriter Iman Ismayil, art director Elchin Efendiyev, designer Amil Guliyev, composer Azer Hajiaskarli and producer Mushfig Khatamov.

The film was successfully screened in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Pakistan, Russia and Bangladesh.

The animated film won the prize at the 8th Seoul Guro International Kids Film Festival in the Bright Future category.

"The Little Prince" has captured the hearts of readers around the world since 1943. The novella is the most famous work of the French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The tale was inspired by his experiences in the French Air Force.

After the outbreak of the World War II, Saint-Exupery escaped to North America. Despite personal upheavals and failing health, he produced almost half of the writings for which he would be remembered, including a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss in the form of a young prince visiting Earth.

Since its first publication, the novella was adapted to numerous art forms and media, including audio recordings, radio plays, live stage, film, television, ballet, and opera.

A short film "Beyond the Wall" has been named best at Five Continents International Film Festival in Venezuela. The short film won Best Independent Short Film Award.

"Beyond the Wall" tells about the artist's spiritual journey through loneliness and musical-poetic hypostasis of love. The film is based on a script written by Azer Aghalarov and poetess Leyla Begim-Jafarova. Memories of the main character are reflected in symbolism of poetry and surrealism of art. 

The shootings took place over three days. The film was edited by Firdovsi Nabiyev.

The short film has previously been named best at Monkey Bread Tree Film Awards in London.

The festival's main competition is divided into budget groupings split across various media forms: short films, feature films, web-series and scriptwriting competition.

Directed by Azer Aghalarov, the film won the prize in "Best Editing" category.

The film "Beyond the wall" has been also awarded at the 2020 Bridge Fest International Film Festival (Best Documentary), Istanbul Film Festival (Best Short Film) and the Oniros Fílm Awards (Best Musical Film).

Notably,  Five Continents International Film Festival is an online festival, with live screening of the winning films. It is a monthly festival of world cinematography, where feature films, short films, videoclips, webseries and video arts from all over the world come together to compete for the various prizes.

Living Classics International Reading Competition invites young people (10-17 years old) to read out the prose of the Russian authors. 

The competition is a great chance for young people to show their talents. The contest participants are required to read all the works in the Russian. 

The contest is supported by the Russian Ministry of Education, Rossotrudnichestvo, and the Presidential Grants Fund. The project in Azerbaijan is curated by the Russian Association of Youth in Azerbaijan.

The contest will be held virtually amid coronavirus pandemic. 

Participation in the competition is free. Registration for participation is open until January 25, 2021.

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) has presented Top 100 Azerbaijani Films by rating and popularity. 

The list is dominated by films with 8.5 points, including Rasim Ojagov's works "Tahmina" (1993),"Temple of the Air" (1989)  and "Birthday"( 1978), Huseyn Seidzadeh's "If Not That One, Then This One" (1956), Vagif Mustafayev's "Everything for the Better" (1997), Ramiz Hasanoglu's "The Life of Javid "(2007), Huseyn Mehtiyev's "Someone else's time" (1996). 

Apart from that, Jeyhun Mirzoyev's "Scream" (1993), Hasan Seyidbayli's  "I remember you, teacher" (1969), Shamila Makhmudbayova's "Shared Bread" (1971) and "Kamilia" (1971) and many others are among the films with 8.4 points.

The list of the most popular Azerbaijani films on IMDb features Asif Rustamov's "Downstream" (2014) followed by Rasim Ojagov's "Tahmina" (1993), Elkhan Jafarov's "Hail" (2012), Jeyhun Mirzoyev's "Scream "(1993), Hasan Seyidbayli's "Nasimi" (1973), Vahid Mustafayev's "Khoja" (2012) and others. 

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews.

Internet Movie Database registered users can cast a vote (from 1 to 10) on every released title in the database. Individual votes are then aggregated and summarized as a single IMDb rating, visible on the title’s main page.

By "released title" IMDb means that the movie (or TV show) must have been shown publicly at least once (including festival screening).

Users can update their votes as often as they’d like, but any new vote on the same title will overwrite the previous one, so it is one vote per title per user.

Azerbaijani cinema has come to be an internationally recognized modern art enjoying a huge popularity and recognition at international film festivals, which frequently award the national films.

Over the past years, more than 300 films and 1,200 documentaries, as well as hundreds of cartoons were filmed.

Shortly after the Lumiere brothers from France invented cinematograph, an apparatus for making motion pictures, in 1895, Russian photographer and cameraman Alexandre Michon began shooting motion pictures that depicted everyday life in Baku. 

The first short, silent film of Azerbaijani cinematography "You are caught" was shown in Baku on August 2, 1898. The audience witnessed a historical event - the birth of Azerbaijani cinematography.

To honor this historical day, the national leader Heydar Aliyev signed an order on December 18, 2000, to declare August 2 as professional holiday of cinema workers – Day of Azerbaijani Cinema.

At present, it is planned to carry out systemic reforms to develop and modernize cinema art in Azerbaijan. 

English-language China Daily newspaper has published an article headlined “Azerbaijan declares 2021 as 'Year of Nizami Ganjavi'”.

Written by special correspondent in China Shahin Jafarov, the article says: “President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to declare 2021 as a "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" in Azerbaijan. The 880th anniversary of the great poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi will be celebrated in 2021.”

The article quotes President Ilham Aliyev as saying during the video meeting with newly appointed Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Anar Karimov: "Our rich literature is well-known all over the world, and we can be rightly proud of our great poets. By my order, 2021 is being declared as a "Year of Nizami". In 2021, we will celebrate the 880th anniversary of the birth of Nizami, and it should be celebrated extensively both in Azerbaijan and around the world. The works of great Azerbaijani poet Nizami should be promoted more broadly in the world."

President Ilham said: "The Nizami Ganjavi International Center has been operating for many years. Although the center was established as a humanitarian non-governmental organization, its activities are now very extensive and multifaceted. The annual Global Baku Forum – which, of course, was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic – has taken its rightful place in the world. I want to say again that this year we must widely celebrate the anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi."

President of Azerbaijan recalled that 2019 was a year of another great Azerbaijani poet Nasimi. "Nizami, Nasimi, Fuzuli and other great Azerbaijani poets have made immense contributions to the literary treasury of the world," President Ilham Aliyev emphasized.

“Nizami Ganjavi, the greatest representative of the Eastern Renaissance, was born in 1141 in Ganja, one of the ancient cultural centres of Azerbaijan and the capital of the Azerbaijani Atabey's state. He represented the quintessence of world literature and philosophy in his works. Nizami Ganjavi inscribed his name forever in the annals of art with his Khamsa (Five poems) - Treasury of Secrets (1175), Khosrow and Shirin (1180), Leyli and Majnun (1188), Seven Beauties (1197) and Iskander-Nameh (1203). They laid a strong foundation for the great Nizami school of literature which continues to exert its influence nowadays. His works, with their unique poetic innovations and universal themes, have transcended borders to influence the literature of distant lands.

Nizami was not satisfied with just the deep intellect and poetic talent. Throughout his lifetime he pursued knowledge diligently and doubled his experience with his poetic talent; these two great attributes contributed to his scientific and philosophical research into the happiness of the human being.

The works of Nizami Ganjavi were translated into many languages. The rare manuscript copies of his works are kept and preserved like precious pearls in famous libraries, museums and literary foundations in cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Tashkent, Tabriz, Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, London, Paris and others.

Nizami Ganjavi passed away in 1209 in his native city of Ganja. A grandiose tomb was raised over his grave. Monuments to Nizami are found in many cities of Azerbaijan, as well as in Moscow, Rome, St.Peterburg, Kyiv, Beijing, Tashkent, Chişinau,” the article says.

Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers has announced a script contest under the theme "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!".

The main purpose of the competition is to reflect in the scenarios the National Army's heroic struggle for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. 

Anyone can submit their script to the competition. Screenplays of feature films, documentaries, short films and animation films are accepted for the competition.

The rights to the script submitted for the competition must belong to the author, and must not be sold and be in the process of shooting. Scripts must be original, i.e. not filmed.

It should be noted that the script for the competition must be printed in three copies, and also provided on a digital medium - CD.

The name and surname of the author should not be indicated on the printed scripts. Font format - Courier New, size - 12. Along with the script, the author must submit an autobiography. Each author can submit to the competition no more than 1 (one) scenario. Scenarios submitted for the competition are not returned.

The scripts must be submitted to the Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers from February 1 to April 30, 2021.

The competent jury of the competition is appointed by the Union. The jury will evaluate four scenarios through secret ballot.

The winner will be awarded a cash prize and a diploma. The further film adaptation is also planned. 

The winners will be awarded in the following nominations: "Best script for a feature film", "Best script for a documentary film", "Best script for a short film", "Best Screenplay for an Animated Film". The winners will be awarded with cash prizes.

For more information, please contact:

(+ 994 12) 597-48 04

(+ 994 51) 427-41-03

 Email address: arki.2012@mail.ru

Founded in 2012, Azerbaijan Filmmakers Union (AUF) focuses on development of local cinema as an integral part of national culture and world cinema.

The Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers is a member of the Confederation of Unions of Cinematographers of the CIS and Baltic States.

President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order to declare 2021 as a “Year of Nizami Ganjavi” in Azerbaijan.

The 880th anniversary of the great poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi will be celebrated in 2021.