Filmmakers Alliance is pleased to announce that it has invited Rob Nilsson to curate the award which bears his name.  Starting in 2010 the award will be given annually.

The inaugural recipient in 2008, Nilsson will select a filmmaker who, in his judgment, opens up new territory, or transforms the old, combining unique artistry and an eye for “the way things seem to be.”  The award will be given annually at VisionFest - presented by Filmmakers Alliance in August at the Directors Guild of America.
This year’s award recipient will be Harutyun Khachatryan from Armenia.
Nilsson’s Commentary:  “Harutyun’s BORDER seemed like an entirely new kind of film to me.  Original in its way as John Cassavetes’ SHADOWS was in 1960, BORDER bridges fantasy and documentary in a way I’ve never seen before. This is not an avant- garde film. I would call it après- garde, looking beyond the well- trodden surrealist terrain once called ‘experimental’.  BORDER does not experiment. It creates an experience which the modern world needs to have.”

Harutyun Khachatryan has made eleven feature films including the recent RETURN OF THE POET (2005), and DOCUMENTARIST (2003), and THE VOICES OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD (1981).

He is also head of the Golden Apricot Film Festival, Armenia’s premiere event each July in Yerevan.  His recent honors include retrospectives in Moscow, Montevideo and Tbilisi.