All activities / Film Festivals / Yerevan
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Film Festivals in Yerevan
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival
The pink-tuff capital older than Rome, where a manuscript fortress and a 400,000-piece national collection anchor Republic Square.
Run by Golden Apricot Fund for Cinema Development, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, founded in 2004, is the Caucasus's flagship film event: the 23rd edition runs July 12-19, 2026 with ninety films from forty countries, and the festival joined the FIAPF network this cycle. Its founding mission, crossroads of cultures and civilizations, plays out in a program that leans on the Armenian diaspora's global cinema alongside regional premieres, screened in a capital where July evenings move outdoors and the festival crowd fills the cafes around the Cascade. Apricot season and festival season are the same season, which is the kind of branding no committee could buy.
Best months
Annual in mid-July: the 2026 edition runs July 12-19. Screenings are cheap and central; masterclasses and retrospectives are the connoisseur draw. July in Yerevan is hot, evening screenings are the move.
Getting there & around
Festival venues cluster in the walkable center. Zvartnots airport is twenty minutes out; July needs booked beds but not months ahead.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Golden Apricot Fund for Cinema Development
OrganizerThe Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival has run each July since 2004, founded by film director Harutyun Khachatryan with film critics Mikayel Stamboltsyan and Susanna Harutyunyan; the 23rd edition runs July 12 to 19, 2026. Competition spans an international features section, a regional Western Asia section and the Apricot Stone program for Armenian shorts, alongside a FIPRESCI prize, premieres, retrospectives and tributes.
Also good for film festivals in July:
Torn between Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for July?
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