at the
third edition of the festival The "Golden Apricot" Annual Film Festival was established in 2004 in
Yerevan, by the "Golden Apricot" Fund for Cinema Development, the Armenian Association of Film Critics and Cinema Journalists, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the Ministry of Culture of Armenia and Benevolent Fund for Cultural Development. Canadian-Armenian director
Atom Egoyan was named president of the festival since 2005. The Festival is dedicated to the theme of Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations, and features a multitude of films representing various nations and religions, collectively depicting the richness of the human experience. In 2005, the establishment of a network of filmmakers of the region entitled Directors Across Borders was initiated by the "Golden Apricot" Film Festival. Since 2005 "Golden Apricot" has been functioning under the aegis of the European Cultural Parliament. In 2010, the festival was awarded by the
FICTS Plate D'honneur. In 2017, festival organizers cancelled the screening of an off-competition program entitled, "Armenians: Internal And External Views", with no reasons given.
LGBT activists took to social media to criticize the cancellation, with some claiming that two LGBTQ+-themed films —
Apricot Groves and
Listen to Me: Untold Stories Beyond Hatred — were the reason for the cancellation.
Atom Egoyan and
Arsinée Khanjian, prominent
Armenian Canadian figures in cinema, denounced this cancellation. An open letter signed by filmmakers, activists, politicians, and others denouncing the cancellation was published, and LGBTQ+ rights organizations
Pink Armenia and
GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society strongly criticized the censorship. The
EU's
Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum called on Armenian authorities to fulfill their international commitments, stating that "The incident... runs contrary to the process of Armenia's joining the
Creative Europe programme". In 2025, 22nd edition of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival was held from 13 July to 20 July. It opened with
It Was Just an Accident by Iranian filmmaker
Jafar Panahi, and closed with the Armenian classic
Last Station, 1994 film by Harutyun Khachatryan and Nora Armani. ==Awards and categories of competition==