Azerbaijanfilm studio calls for scriptwriters

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijanfilm Studio has announced a script competition dedicated to the Karabakh region, Azernews reports.

The competition, timed to the film studio's centenary, is to support creative people working in the field of cinematography as well as to attract new creative forces to the film industry.

Azerbaijanfilm Studio received 60 applications of which seven were rejected due to non-compliance with the regulations.

The remaining 53 scrips have been submitted for consideration to the Expert Council established at the film studio.

The winners will receive a cash reward. The names of the winners will be announced on National Cinema Day (August 2).

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

Over the past years, more than 300 films and 1,200 documentaries, as well as hundreds of cartoons have been shot in the country.

Shortly after the Lumiere brothers from France invented cinematography, an apparatus for making motion pictures in 1895, Alexandre Michon, a Russian photographer and cameraman, 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 a professional holiday for cinema workers – Day of Azerbaijani Cinema.

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