Armenians in Film at Nuovo Armenia

Vahan is an aspiring film director and screenwriter, who was born and grew up in Yerevan, Armenia. He is an international relations specialist by trade but has never worked in the field. In 2021, Vahan courageously embraced his childhood-inspired passion for filmmaking by writing and directing his debut short film, titled "The Mud”. The film has gone on to win "Best Director" and “The Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography Special Prize” at the Yerevan International Short Film Festival. Currently, Vahan is in the post-production stage of his second short film, "The Egg.”

Charlotte Mungomery is a Director & Artist based in Eastern Australia.
Known for her signature style, Charlotte’s work focuses on experimental filmmaking, playing daringly with narrative & aesthetic abstractions. Charlotte’s background as an APDG award winning production designer informs her formally inventive & subversive approach to cinema & art creation. Her work plays daringly with narrative & aesthetic abstractions.

The Zela Margossian Quintet is an ARIA nominated ethno-jazz band based in Sydney, performing original works and arrangements carrying influences from Armenian traditional music. Composed of talented and multicultural musicians from Sydney, the quintet creates an exotic musical atmosphere that is sure to take you on an emotive and pleasurable journey. Transition, the band’s debut album, received an ARIA nomination for Best World Music Album category in October 2019. The Quintet held their debut performance at the prestigious Sydney Opera House in December 2020, and have since participated in different festivals in Sydney and around the world such as the International Women’s Jazz Festival, the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, the Sydney Festival, and the Beirut International Jazz Festival.

Arman Ayvazyan was born in 1994 in Yerevan, Armenia. He graduated from the Armenian Pedagogical Institute in 2016 with a focus in film directing. He later attended the Russian State University of Cinematography named after Sergei Gerasimov (VGIK), where he graduated in 2022 with a specialization in the department of directing non-fiction films. Arman now works as a documentary filmmaker in his native country of Armenia and has seen his work showcased at several prestigious film festivals, including but not limited to the Silver Scad Film Festival (Sevastopol, 2022 Winner: Best Director), the Golden Short Film Festival (Avezzano, 2022), the Prague International Film Awards (Prague), and the Window to Europe Film Festival (St. Petersburg).

Hasmik was born in Yerevan, Armenia, and moved to St. Petersburg, Russia with her family at the age of 11. After graduating from the medical faculty of St. Petersburg State University, she pursued her passion for filmmaking and was accepted into the directing department of Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), studying under the guidance of Alexander and Vladimir Kott and Anna Fenchenko. During her time at VGIK, Hasmik directed three films - "Apnea" (2019), "Side by side" (2021), and "Harisa" (2022) - all of which received critical acclaim and won awards at various student film festivals. Her latest film, "250km," began as a student project but quickly grew into a fully independent production.

Kevork Aslanyan is a director and writer. He received his BA in Film and TV editing at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (Sofia, Bulgaria) in 2009. In 2012, he finished his studies at the London Film Academy in writing and film direction. Aslanyan made his debut with the short film, Getting Fat in a Healthy Way, in 2015. Aslanyan’s work has been featured on Nowness, shots, LBB, Directors Notes, AotW, Short of the Week, VOTD, Campaign Brief Asia, Boyscout and Lürzer’s Archiveam.

Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker, multimedia artist, and interdisciplinary creative collaborator. Her evolving artistic practice reflects her upbringing in a displaced, diasporic family, and centers the decolonized narratives of women, especially from the SWANA region, as well as a deep commitment to the healing power of relational, ethical, collaborative storytelling. Emily has been a Flaherty Seminar Fellow, a LA Arts Activation Fund recipient, A Locarno Film Festival development grant winner, a UnionDocs Summer Lab Fellow, and participated in the Torino Film Creative Producing Lab. She is currently working on her first feature documentary film There Was, There Was Not, which has been supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, the International Documentary Association Enterprise Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and the HotDocs Cross Currents Fund.

Anahid Yahjian is an independent writer, director, and producer of experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. She produced the internationally awarded narrative short 140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand 2013), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot 2017) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary LEVON: A Wondrous Life (2013). Since returning to Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum (2014-2016) and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF 2019). She was later commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery to create the docu-memoir Hishé (2021). When not creating her own work, she directs branded content and music videos for clients such as AMC Networks, Amazon Music, and Joyful Noise Recordings. Recently, she also supervised postproduction on televised series and digital content for A24, Netflix, Vice, and Spotify.