YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. It's Me (Yes Em) annual international youth festival will be held for the fourth time on April 25-30 in Yerevan on the initiative of Union of Cinematographers of Armenia. As film maker Ruben Gevorgiants, festival's Director and Chairman of jury, said at the April 18 press conference, 220 films have been received from 17 countries for participation in the festival and the jury selected 105 out of them. According to R. Gevorgiants' observations, the quality of films presented last year was higher than the quality of films presented this year. "In the respect of quantity there are more films, but no essential development was noticed in the respect of quality." R. Gevorgian also stated that in general, "fiction films are very weak among films presented to the festival" and documentary films are comparatively good. The Director of the festival also expressed an opinion that in all probability, there will be no Grand Prix this year, as he does not see a work pretending on that prize among the presented films. R. Gevorgiants also said that the majority of people who presented films to the festival are young creators. Most of them will take part in the festival for the first time. "This festival is organized just for them, for them to be able to present their works and pave the way for themselves," R. Gevorgiants said. The Director of the festival also said that producers, who won prizes in this festival in previous years, succeeded in another festivals, too. "This means that the jury is unbiassed and our criteria correspond to the international ones," R. Gevorgiants said. The Chairman of the jury also said that in all probability, henceforth the festival will be organized once in two years, as no interesting films containing something new are created within one year. The festival's steering committee has instituted 8 prizes: the best fiction film, the best documentary film, the best student work, the best cameramen's work, the best producer's work, the best musical clip, the best animation film, the best video-art. All participants will receive a diploma, a prize and a monetary award. R. Gevorgiants also said that Ara Vahuni new prize has been instituted in the documentary film nomination in memory of the famous film director. In the words of the festival's responsible person, more than 7 mln drams (nearly 20 thousand USD) has been spent on the whole festival, 1.5 mln drams out of which was allocated by RA Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs.

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