With her highly acclaimed Armenian animated film Aurora’s Sunrise, Inna Sahakyan was able to secure the top Jury Award for best documentary at the MiradasDoc Festival, MovieWeb reports.
The Armenian, German, and Lithuanian co-production, directed by Sahakyan, is based on the true story of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian Genocide who lost her family, escaped enslavement, and subsequently had to deal with Hollywood’s ruthless publicity after she becomes the face of a massive humanitarian campaign. Meanwhile, a corrupt political conspiracy tries to silence her.
The festival’s jury, which was made up of Hicham Falah, Jane Mote, and Ricardo Acosta, announced Aurora’s Sunrise as the winner of the Best International Feature Award and described it as “a convincing story elegantly told, through archives, animation, and fiction, about a little-known genocide that sheds light and awareness on today’s political tensions and challenges.”
The 16th edition of the film festival, which takes place in Guía de Isora in the Canary Islands of Spain, featured films and documentaries from around the globe, with various awards acquired by stories of underrepresented communities in cinema, including films from countries like Armenia, Morocco, and Cuba.
