“International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Armenia” as a Platform for Cross-Border Cultural Dialogue for Youth Present-day world is in need of harmony, tolerance, cooperation and peace. Becoming the victims of conflicts all over the world, youth is against the existing mistrust and hatred especially in territories involved in armed conflict. Youth not only rejects the war but tries to disseminate peace culture into large sectors of society in various regions and countries. They tend to overcome stereotypes more easily, they have a more open-minded approach towards each other and they are ready to build relations based on trust and mutual understanding. Therefore, the role of youth comes to be of high importance in the process of confidence building, mitigation of the climate of misunderstanding and reconciliation. Culture has been an important and open field for all generations where problems of society are reflected from a liberal point of view irrespective of political, economical, religious convictions. Thus, it should be used as an adequate means for establishing cross-border dialogue, mutual respect, understanding and tolerance.

The project “Country Day”, which was first organized in the frames of the 7th Festival in 2011 and was dedicated to the country of the rising sun – Japan, continued in the framework of the 9th Festival. This time the 3rd day out of 5 festival days was devoted to the Republic of South Africa. At the Museum of Contemporary Art an exhibition titled “Peace” was organized, at which the best art works by students of Fine Arts studio-college of National Center of Aesthetics and by children from Nagorno-Karabakh were exhibited.