The California Courier publisher: Armenia blocks Artsakh movie from  nomination for Oscar

ArmInfo.The Armenian National Film Academy just chose to nominate for the 2025 Oscars a movie  titled "Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev" (directed by E. Baghdasaryan - ed.) instead of Shoghakat Vardanyan's "1489", which tells about the grave consequences of the Artsakh war. This was  stated in an article  by the newspaper's publisher Harut Sassounian in The California Courier.

In this regard, he recalled that just a week ago he criticized the  government of Jordan for buckling under Azerbaijan's pressure to  withdraw  its nomination of a documentary about Artsakh ("My Sweet  Land" - ed.) as an Oscar entry. At the same time, he expressed the  opinion that the decision to nominate another film was done on the  instructions of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan or his  government.  "While it is bad enough that a hostile country like  Azerbaijan prevents the nomination of a movie about Artsakh, but it  is much worse when Armenia itself refuses to present a movie about  Artsakh to the Oscars.  Given their anti-Artsakh positions, we can  safely assume that this decision was made at their suggestion,"  Sassounian noted, adding that the Ministry of Education, Culture and  Sports (MESCS) of Armenia is the sponsor of  "Yasha and Leonid  Brezhnev." 

The publisher then supported his assumptions with several facts.  According to him, on many occasions, Pashinyan has confirmed his  anti-Artsakh position starting with his capitulation that Artsakh  belongs to Azerbaijan. "Given the fact that Artsakh was occupied by  Azerbaijan under Pashinyan's watch, he is extremely reluctant to talk  about his major failure and remind the people of his personal  responsibility for not protecting Artsakh. That is why he has not  referred to Nagorno-Karabakh as Artsakh since the 2020 war. He  declares that the  Karabagh refugees, who fled to Armenia after  Azerbaijan's takeover of Artsakh in September 2023, are no longer  citizens of Armenia, even though they possess  passports of the  Republic of Armenia," Sassounian explained.

 The publisher of the California Courier newspaper also noted that  the Armenian Prime Minister, has been desperately trying to convince  President Ilham Aliyev to sign a peace treaty with Armenia, he has  shied away from taking any actions that he feels would antagonize  Azerbaijan.  Additionally, Sassounian mentioned that the director of  the film "Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev" Baghdasaryan is a board member  of the Armenian National Film Academy, which selected this film as  Armenia's official Oscar nomination.  "The film "1489" received the  votes of only two out of 30 members of the Council of the Armenian  National Film Academy, which caused serious controversy in the  country," Sassounian continued.

At the same time, he recalled that the film "1489" won the Best Film  Award of the International Film Festival of Amsterdam, the FIPRESCI  Award by the International Federation of Film Critics, the Trieste  Film Festival Award, and several others.

The "Eye for an Eye" community of Armenian documentary filmmakers,  photographers, writers, and artists urged the Armenian National Film  Academy to review its decision, claiming that Baghdasaryan's film  "has not had international exhibitions and has not won international  awards." "Vardanyan's film ("1489") could have been the first  Armenian film to receive an Oscar. "The Armenian public should  express its outrage at the decision of the Armenian Film Academy to  select a whimsical movie instead of the one that portrays an immense  tragedy - the loss of Artsakh. Armenians should accept nothing short  of the reversal the Armenian Academy's incorrect decision. It is very  disturbing that Armenian officials, like the Azerbaijani government,  have blocked the submission to the Oscars of a high-quality Armenian  movie related to Artsakh," Harut Sassounian concluded.