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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.
Khachatryan holds a master’s degree in Turkish Studies from Sabanci University, Turkey. She also earned an MA degree and a BA in International Relations from Yerevan State University. For over 10 years, she was involved in various Armenian-Turkish civil society projects. Her professional experience includes working as a writing consultant at the Math and Writing Center of AUA. Since 2022, she has been serving on the executive board of European Writing Centers Association.
Sargsyan graduated from the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinematography in the Feature Film Directing department in 2017. From 2007 to 2010, she did her Ph.D. in the same institute, and published various articles on cinema language and film structure. Her thesis dealt with Sound in Film Structure. She worked as an assistant director in Armenian public television and was the casting assistant to Maria Saakyan for her 2006 film “Mayak.” Her debut as a scriptwriter and director came with the 2020 short film “General Cleaning.” Her second short film, “The Eternal Red,” was released in 2025.
Following an open call for applications in Armenia, Next Step Studio received 25 submissions. A shortlist of 12 projects was drawn up, and the shortlisted filmmakers were interviewed on July 16 at the House of Cinema in Yerevan by a selection committee composed of Juliette Canon, Short Film Coordinator and Next Step Coordinator at Critics’ Week, French producer Dominique Welinski and Armenian producer Artyom Baghdasaryan.
The filmmaker pairings will be announced during the CineLink closing ceremony at Sarajevo Film Festival on Aug. 19.
This year’s Next Step Studio focuses on Indonesia.
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