The 2nd SALAM International Youth Film Festival has started in Baku.

The main purpose of the festival is to create friendship between teenagers, to promote the Azerbaijani culture to educate the youth in accordance with the worldwide spiritual values, as well as support in the formation of the good art taste and understanding of the cinema among the young generation through demonstration of professional high-quality films, Azernews reports.

The project is co-organized by Narimanfilm Studio with the support of the Culture Ministrythe Ministry of Science and Education, as well as PASHA Holding's general sponsorship. The opening ceremony took place at Zira Ecopark, bringing together over 350 young talents and the guests of honor.

After the inspiring speeches of the festival's art director Leyla Dostalizade, the festival's program director Nargiz Bagirzade, director of the Universal Kids Film Festival (Turkiye) Roven Martinez Ulyan, professor Said Mangi (Pakistan) anf Founder-President Nariman Mammadov declared the festival open.

Since 2019, the film studio has been hosting the SALAM International Youth Film Festival. The festival program which included the film screenings, meetings with the film directors and actors as well as the demonstration of short videos directed by young talents on the big screen made a lasting impression on the audience.

The festival's first edition held in 2019 gathered up to 300 young people from 10 countries. Along with film screenings, practical sessions, entertainment programs and excursions were organized as part of the festival.

Each of the 300 young people who took part in the festival spent these four days with great pleasure.

The festival, which brought together representatives of 11 countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Croatia, India, received positive feedback both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

Young talents from Azerbaijan and other countries applied to the 2nd SALAM International Youth Film Festival.

Aurora Gosse's film "Dancing Queen" (2023) and Sorayos Prapapam's "Arnold is a model student" (2022) were screened on the festival`s first day

Workshops on film directing with Orkhan Agazade and a cinema marathon with Eldar Ismayilov, Gurban Bunyatov, Tarlan Rasulov, Asmar Abdullayeva were also organized as part of the event.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.Az,Trend.Az, Day.Az, Milli.Az.