Laman Ismayilova

The 7th DokuBak International Documentary Film Festival has opened its doors to cinema lovers.

The documentary festival has been held yearly since 2017. For the last two years, it was financially supported by the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry, Azernews reports.

The theme of the 7th edition is "CosmoDarwinism: Age of Aquarius". The festival program consists of 43 screenings.

Within the festival, over 60 films from 29 countries will be screened in five categories: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, DokuDarwin, No Main Competition, Out of Competition and DokuKids - films for children.

Head of the Cinema Agency Department Rashad Gasimov welcomed the guests of the event.

In his speech, he noted that the festival is supported by the Culture Ministry and Cinema Agency.

The festival director, Imam Hasanov expressed gratitude to everyone who assisted in holding the festival and declared the festival officially open.

Next, the film "Live a Century: Centenarians of Lerik" by director Maria Ibrahimova was presented to the public.

Before the screening, Ibrahimova noted that this was her first film shot in Azerbaijan.

"I am happy finally to share this cinema work with the audience. I am very grateful to the festival organizers for the opportunity to present my film," she said.

“Live a Century: Centenarians of Lerik” is a story about a unique place not only by the standards of Azerbaijan but also of the whole world. It is not unusual for Lerik residents that their neighbors live for a hundred years, because their fellow countryman is the world-famous long-liver Shirali Baba Muslimov.

The 7th DokuBak International Documentary Film Festival runs until October 1.

The winners in each category will be determined by an international jury of 20 experts, including renowned masters of the genre such as François Sculier, Nik Voigt, Michael Graversen, Andrea Culkova, Emil Najafov and Fuad Shabanov. The best films in each category will be awarded.

This year, in addition to the existing "iHuman", "iCyborg", and "NewEye" awards, the new "CosmoHuman" award will be presented as well.

Number of festival partners is increasing every year. Yanis Palavos, a representative of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and Justin Jaeckle, a programmer of the Doclisboa Festival are participating in this year`s festival.

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