Aurora’s Sunrise (2023)
Director: Inna Sahakyan Run Time: 96 min. Release Year: 2016
Country: Armenia, Germany, Lithuania
Language: Armenian, English, Turkish, Kurdish, German with English subtitles
About the film:
Winner of Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film
At only 14 years old, Aurora lost everything during the horror of the Armenian genocide. Two years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring as herself in Auction of Souls (1919), an early Hollywood blockbuster, Aurora became the face of one of the largest charity campaigns in American history. With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.
“a stunning hybrid that melds animation, interview footage with its subject, and a 1919 silent film once thought lost to history”
—Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert
An international festival darling, Aurora’s Sunrise (2023) was selected as Armenia’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, though it was not nominated.
About the Filmmaker:
Inna Sahakyan is an Armenian documentary director, producer and scriptwriter whose innovative creative works focus on uncovering untold stories on the nature of humanity. Her feature-length debut, co-directed with Arman Yeritsyan, was the award-winning The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia (2010). In 2022, she followed up with Mel (2022), a story about a transgender weightlifter from Armenia.
Sahakyan’s animated documentary about Armenian Genocide survivor and early Hollywood star Aurora Mardiganyan, Aurora’s Sunrise (2023), became a festival favorite, screening at over 40 festivals and winning several awards, including the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2022 for Best Animated Film, Movies that Matter 2023 for Special Mention and Audience Award, Audience Favorites at IDFA 2022, Audience Awards at Animation is Film 2022 and FIFDH – International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva 2023 for Grand Prix, among others.
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