Booktrailer Festival 2020 wraps up [PHOTO/VIDEO]

By Laman Ismayilova

The 5th Booktrailer Festival has solemnly wrapped up in Baku. The festival's awarding ceremony took place at the International Mugham Centre with the Culture Ministry support.

The festival, which took place under the slogan "Promote a book, get promoted with a book!" was timed to the World Book Day or World Book and Copyright Day, held annually on April 23. The festival is headed by actor and producer Ruslan Sabirli. 

Opening the ceremony, Ruslan Sabirli congratulated the participants on victory in the second Karabakh war. 

The memory of the martyrs of the Great Patriotic War was commemorated with a minute of silence.

The festival's founder stressed that the 5th Booktrailer Festival had been extended amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

He also noted that book trailers are short videos that promote a book or an author, providing a good illustration of the book content. Book trailers are a form of advertising for a book. Produced by publishers, and sometimes authors themselves, they are tools to pique interest in the novel and raise their popularity.

Ruslan Sabirli expressed his gratitude to the Culture Ministry and the International Mugham Centre for their support in holding the festival.

In his speech, head of the Culture Ministry's Book Circulation and Publishing Department Akif Marifli emphasized the festival's importance and congratulated the winners.

He said that the book trailer festival has become widespread in many countries around the world.

"It is a commendable project in terms of bringing together people in the field of literature and cinema, used as an online platform for authors to speak to the public in the modern digital age. I wish the festival to be renewed and developed every year...," he said.

Marifli expressed his hope that the festival's next editions could make a worthy contribution to the art of reading.

The festival's jury  Honored Art Worker, Secretary of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan, Editor-in-Chief of "525th Newspaper" Rashad Majid, People's Artist Khalida Guliyeva, Honored Artist Gurban Masimov stressed the festival`s role in promoting reading. 

Next, the winners of the 5th Booktrailer Festival were announced.  Yashar Huseynov ( "Murder on the Seventh Floor) took the first place, Agamali Aliyev (For Penguins), Orkhan Adigozalov (Forgive me if I die) were second, while Karim Rahimov (8 days in the Armenian dungeon), Mursal Gafarov ( Heroes of Difai​ movement ) and Masar Hasanov ( A dream come true) ranked third. 

The winners were awarded diplomas and prizes by the Culture Ministry.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az and Milli.az 

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Laman Ismayilova  is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lamiva993

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