Azerbaijan marks National Cinema Day

Today is the 124th anniversary of the establishment of Azerbaijani cinema.

National Cinema Day is the professional holiday of all cinematographers and is celebrated in Azerbaijan every year on August 2.

It appeared in the calendar of official holidays of the country relatively recently, after national leader Heydar Aliyev, "considering the merits of Azerbaijani cultural figures in the development of national cinema," signed a decree "On the establishment of the National Cinema Day" on December 18, 2000.

Two years after the first cinema show organised in France, on August 2, 1898, the secretary of Baku Scientific-Photographic Society, publisher and photographer Alexander Michon showed the documentaries "The fire at the oil fountain in Bibi Heybat", "Seeing-off His Highness Emir Bukhari on the steamship "Grand duke Alexey", "Caucasian dance" and feature story "Got caught" made by him. This day is considered the birthday of the national cinema.

At the beginning of the last century, foreign film companies, such as Pathé, Pirone Brothers Society, and "Filma" opened their branches in Baku and started to produce films. In 1916, a short film "In the kingdom of oil and millions" was shot based on a novel of the same name by writer Ibrahimbay Musabayov, and in 1917, "Arshin Mal Alan", based on an operetta by Uzeyir Hajibeyov.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan in 1923, the Azerbaijan Photo Film Board (AFKU) was created, and the first State Film Factory was opened on April 28 of the same year. The first film shot here was the feature film "Maiden Tower", based on a folk legend.

In 1923-1926, the name of the studio was "First State Film Factory", then after merging with AFKU it was named "Azdevletkino", "Azerkino", "Azerfilm", "Azdovletkinosenayye", "Baku Film Studio", "Azerbaijanfilm". Since 1960, it was named after Jafar Jabbarli.

So far, Azerbaijanfilm Studio has produced more than 2,000 films of various kinds and genres. Some of them such as "Arshin Mal Alan", "Bread in Equal", "Birthday", "Investigation", and "Scoundrel" were honoured with state awards, and a number of pictures such as "Stepmother", "On Far Shores", "Arshin Mal Alan", "Our Jabish Mulallim" ("Our teacher Jabish"), "Last Pass", "Nasimi", "Alien Time", "Sari Gelin" were awarded international and other movie festivals awards.

Caliber.Az congratulates the entire domestic film community on the Day of the Azerbaijani Cinema.