Cannes Film Festival‘s Critics’ Week has revealed the participants of next year’s Next Step Studio program, which will focus on Armenia. The filmmakers taking part are Armik Israyelyan, Raffi Movsisyan, Sona Khachatryan and Naira Sargsyan.
Each of the four Armenian directors will be paired with an international filmmaker, and the filmmaking pairs will then develop and shoot a film each. The films will be shot in Yerevan in March 2027, filmed in the Armenian language, and produced with a fully Armenian cast and crew. The completed films will premiere at Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2027. They will be supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia.
Israyelyan is an alumnus of the KinoEyes European Film Masters program and studied at the American University of Armenia. Before becoming a director, she worked as a videographer and media creator at UCRAFT. Israyelyan’s “The List” recently took home the best short film award at the Unica Annual Film Festival. She has participated in Erasmus+ film projects.
Movsisyan graduated from the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema in 2012, majoring in Film Studies in the master’s program. From 2012 to 2017, he worked at the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival as a coordinator of Armenian film programs. From 2018 to 2019, he served as an advisor to the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia. Since 2018, he has been a coordinator of film programs at the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies. He wrote and hosted the program “Unseen Cinema” on Channel One, and wrote and hosted a number of programs on the Bun TV channel. In 2021, he directed his debut short film “Homecoming,” which premiered in the competition program of the Krakow Intl. Film Festival. He is the producer of three animated films.
