The number of 1489 refers to “body of an individual missing in action.” It is also the number assigned to numerous Armenians who are nowhere to be found after the wars with Azerbaijan. When a longstanding territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up again in September 2020, a 21-year-old student and musician named Soghomon Vardanyan was thrust into battle. Seven days into the war he went missing… Using her phone camera, his sister Shoghakat decides to film her and her parents' search and their emotional process, in an effort that netted her the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, along with the Fipresci Award in the same festival.
1489 is screening at Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program
The intimacy of the documentary is quite evident from the initial scenes, as the film resembles a home video of a daughter recording her father's everyday life.
1489 is screening at Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program
The intimacy of the documentary is quite evident from the initial scenes, as the film resembles a home video of a daughter recording her father's everyday life.
- 3/18/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 13th edition of First Look, the Museum's festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place in person March 13–17, 2024. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year's festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world. The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, and discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI's two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience. Each night concludes with one of five...
- 2/14/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The annual Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Festival has given IndieWire an exclusive “first look” at the lineup.
The 13th annual event, which takes place March 13 through 17 in Astoria, Queens, opens with the New York premiere of Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo,” which recently took home the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The First Look Festival focuses on emerging talents and international voices, with the fest premiering 46 works, including 20 features that represent 21 countries. Highlights include Farhad Delaram’s “Achilles,” Graham Swon’s “An Evening Song (for three voices), and the U.S. premiere of Lois Patiño’s “Samsara.” Zhang Mengqi’s “Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020,” which won the Award of Excellence winner at the 2023 Yamagata Documentary Festival, will also screen along with Shoghakat Vardanyan’s 2023 IDFA grand prize winner “1489,” the debut for the filmmaker. Returning First Look directors like Michaël Andrianaly...
The 13th annual event, which takes place March 13 through 17 in Astoria, Queens, opens with the New York premiere of Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo,” which recently took home the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The First Look Festival focuses on emerging talents and international voices, with the fest premiering 46 works, including 20 features that represent 21 countries. Highlights include Farhad Delaram’s “Achilles,” Graham Swon’s “An Evening Song (for three voices), and the U.S. premiere of Lois Patiño’s “Samsara.” Zhang Mengqi’s “Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020,” which won the Award of Excellence winner at the 2023 Yamagata Documentary Festival, will also screen along with Shoghakat Vardanyan’s 2023 IDFA grand prize winner “1489,” the debut for the filmmaker. Returning First Look directors like Michaël Andrianaly...
- 2/12/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Documentary chronicles the Armenian director’s search for her missing soldier brother.
Shoghakat Vardanyan’s documentary 1489, which chronicles the Armenian director’s search for her missing soldier brother, has won the best film award in international competition at The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The title 1489 refers to the anonymous number of a “body of an individual missing in action,” and was the number assigned to Soghomon Vardanyan, a 21-year-old student and musician who was close to completing his military service when the conflict between Azerbaijan and his home country Armenia over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) flared up again in September...
Shoghakat Vardanyan’s documentary 1489, which chronicles the Armenian director’s search for her missing soldier brother, has won the best film award in international competition at The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The title 1489 refers to the anonymous number of a “body of an individual missing in action,” and was the number assigned to Soghomon Vardanyan, a 21-year-old student and musician who was close to completing his military service when the conflict between Azerbaijan and his home country Armenia over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) flared up again in September...
- 11/17/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Armenian war documentary 1489, from director Shoghakat Vardanyan, has won the top prize for best film at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The prize comes with a 15,000 euro ($16,000) cash bursary.
In the film, Vardanyan records her and her family’s efforts to find out what happened to her brother, Soghomon, a 21-year-old student and musician who was close to completing his mandatory military service when a conflict broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in September 2020. Soghomon went missing in action, identified only with the anonymous number 1489.
The IDFA jury said 1489 was “a film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The...
In the film, Vardanyan records her and her family’s efforts to find out what happened to her brother, Soghomon, a 21-year-old student and musician who was close to completing his mandatory military service when a conflict broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in September 2020. Soghomon went missing in action, identified only with the anonymous number 1489.
The IDFA jury said 1489 was “a film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The...
- 11/17/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Documentaries about the impact of war claimed two of the top prizes as the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam handed out awards Thursday night.
1489, directed by Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan, won Best Film in International Competition. The film revolves around the disappearance of the director’s 21-year-old brother, Soghomon Vardanyan, who went missing in the early days of the renewed fighting in 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area Armenians refer to as Artsakh.
The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, and Xiaoshuai Wang.
‘1489’
Jurors called 1489, “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see.
1489, directed by Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan, won Best Film in International Competition. The film revolves around the disappearance of the director’s 21-year-old brother, Soghomon Vardanyan, who went missing in the early days of the renewed fighting in 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area Armenians refer to as Artsakh.
The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, and Xiaoshuai Wang.
‘1489’
Jurors called 1489, “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see.
- 11/17/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Shoghakat Vardanyan’s “1489,” which follows the director’s family after her brother goes missing while serving in the Armenian army, won documentary festival IDFA’s best film prize Thursday.
The jury of the International Competition section said the film “acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence.”
The jury added that it was “cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all to look at the things we would rather not see, and ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The best directing award went to Mohamed Jabaly for “Life Is Beautiful,” in which the Palestinian filmmaker documents his life in 2014 when he was visiting Norway and was prevented from returning home to Gaza because the border was closed.
“Life Is Beautiful”
The jury members said the film was “a...
The jury of the International Competition section said the film “acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence.”
The jury added that it was “cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all to look at the things we would rather not see, and ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The best directing award went to Mohamed Jabaly for “Life Is Beautiful,” in which the Palestinian filmmaker documents his life in 2014 when he was visiting Norway and was prevented from returning home to Gaza because the border was closed.
“Life Is Beautiful”
The jury members said the film was “a...
- 11/16/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary’s gatekeepers are playing it awfully safe lately, in the estimation of Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s largest documentary film festival.
In conversation with Deadline before the start of the 36th edition of the festival, Nyrabia assessed the landscape of nonfiction film, finding streaming platforms and other distributors inordinately risk averse.
“I think post pandemic especially, it seems like everybody in the distribution space is really striving to make up lost money,” he told Deadline. “And this is translating into really only betting on very, very clearly winning horses. So, everybody is looking for films with preexisting IP. I mean, they don’t say so. But when I look at what it is that is really working [for them], it is all about celebrities who have their audience predefined, and when that’s not possible, then relying on preset formats such as serial killers and crime.
In conversation with Deadline before the start of the 36th edition of the festival, Nyrabia assessed the landscape of nonfiction film, finding streaming platforms and other distributors inordinately risk averse.
“I think post pandemic especially, it seems like everybody in the distribution space is really striving to make up lost money,” he told Deadline. “And this is translating into really only betting on very, very clearly winning horses. So, everybody is looking for films with preexisting IP. I mean, they don’t say so. But when I look at what it is that is really working [for them], it is all about celebrities who have their audience predefined, and when that’s not possible, then relying on preset formats such as serial killers and crime.
- 11/13/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.