Armenians in Film at Lincoln Center 2024

Tigran Hamasyan is considered one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists/composers of his generation. A piano virtuoso with groove power, Hamasyan seamlessly fuses potent jazz improvisation and progressive rock with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia. Born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987, his musical journey began in his childhood home, where he was exposed to a diverse array of musical influences leading to him playing piano at the age of three, performing in festivals and competitions by the time he was eleven, and winning the Montreux Jazz Festival’s piano competition in 2003. He released his debut album, World Passion, in 2004 at the age of seventeen. The following year, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Additional albums include New Era; Red Hail; A Fable, for which he was awarded a Victoires de la Musique (the equivalent of a Grammy Award in France); Shadow Theater; and Luys i Luso which featured the Yerevan State Chamber Choir focusing on Armenian sacred music stretching stylistically from the 5th century to the 20th century.
His Nonesuch debut, Mockroot (2015), won the Echo Jazz Award for International Piano Instrumentalist of the Year; subsequent records for the label include An Ancient Observer (2017) the companion EP, For Gymuri (2018), Revisiting the Film (2021) and most recently StandArt (2022). Hamasyan was awarded the Deutscher Jazzpreis international category in Piano/Keyboards in 2021. Hamasyan has released records on France’s Plus Loins, Universal France, Nonesuch and ECM.
Hamasyan’s new conceptual album “The Bird of a Thousand Voices” was released in August 2024 on Naïve/Believe – his debut with the label. Tigran composed, scored, and arranged the much-anticipated project blending its traditional folk footprints with rock influences. The first single from the album “The Kingdom” can also be experienced as an interactive game at www.bird1000.com. The recently released double album is inspired by an ancient Armenian tale in which a hero travels into unseen realms to find and bring back a mythical bird – whose thousand different songs will awaken people again and bring harmony to the world. The transmedia music theater piece ‘The Bird of a Thousand Voices’, an intriguing immersive light installation with shadow play, digitally programmed voices, live music, and an Armenian English libretto, premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2024.
In addition to awards and critical acclaim, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following worldwide, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau and the late Chick Corea. “With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements…Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies. You’ll hear nothing else like this,” (NPR).

Ruben Van Leer is an award-winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work seamlessly blends cinema, music, dance, and digital technology to explore profound questions about human existence. His acclaimed sci-fi dance-opera Symmetry (2015), filmed inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, won 11 international awards, including the Golden Prague for Best Performance Arts, and is available on AppleTV. Van Leer's innovative projects, such as Sacred Environment (2017), a VR and live music performance that won the Audience Award at the Holland Festival, and The Boxer (2018), an opera-film for Dutch National Opera, have been showcased at prestigious venues including Teatro Grande Pompeii, Ballet National de Marseille, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Stedelijk Museum. As the founder of Truth.io, a platform for cross-media research, he continues to push the boundaries of artistic innovation, uniting ancient myths with modern science to inspire and connect global audiences.

Sona Saribekyan is a director and filmmaker who enjoys depicting life with all its subtle tones and sharp humor. She studied film direction at the Yerevan Regional State College No. 1 and Yerevan State Film and Theater Institute, going on to self-edit and direct two feature length films and one short documentary.

Her first feature length movie, “On line”, was filmed in 2022. Then, in 2023, Sona filmed her first documentary, “I spread my wings”, which follows the life and memories of the three-time Olympic champion Albert Azaryan. The film earned a “Special Mention” prize at the Trasimeno International Feature Film Festival (TIFF) in July 2024. Her second feature film, “Aquarium”, a romantic comedy, was filmed in 2024 as diploma work.

Sona has also served as an assistant director, script supervisor and art director for films such as “Lost Mountains” in 2023, as well as “With Heaven and Earth” and “Papaya” in 2024. Sona is currently co-founder at Ibex Production.

David Jinanyan is a producer and arts manager based in Yerevan. He studied acting at the Yerevan Regional College #1 from 2016 to 2021 and then continued his studies in arts management at the Yerevan State Theater and Cinema Institute in 2021 and the University of Arts London in 2023. He has served as a producer for a number of films, including "I Spread My Wings" (2023), "100 Lives" (2023), "Night Time Ride" (2023), and "Hello Out There" by William Saroyan (2024) among others. David has also coordinated events such as AGBU Katapult Pavillion in 2021 and the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in 2023, and currently serves as the President of Jino Arts.

Artur Saribekyan was born in 1987 in Armenia and graduated from the Directing department of the Yerevan Institute of Theater and Cinema in 2009. He has extensive experience in the film industry, having worked as a director's assistant on full-length feature films such as "Chnchik" and "Moskvich, my love." Artur has also created documentaries and TV series for Armenian Public Television and directed plays at various theaters in Armenia. In 2022, he wrote and directed the animated film "From the Border." Currently, Artur is in the process of developing his latest project, a feature film entitled "Saro."

Ophelia Harutyunyan is an Armenian fiction and documentary filmmaker based out of Los Angeles and New York. She co-directed and produced the documentary Totally Under Control (NEON) about the US government's failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She produced Crazy, Not Insane (HBO) which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. She wrote and produced the fiction short film Red Apples which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. Her films have played at other notable film festivals like Sundance, SXSW, TIFF, Tribeca, Clermont Ferrand, etc. Most recently, she wrote and directed the short fiction film It Takes a Village..., an Armenian-French-Belgian co-production, which premiered at Clermont Ferrand IFF and won the grand prix from France TV. She produced the documentary WISE GUY David Chase and The Sopranos which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. She is currently directing a two-part feature documentary for HBO. She's a graduate of the Columbia University's Film MFA program and an alumna of the Berlinale Talents and La Biennale College Cinema programs.

Kevork was born in Sofia, Bulgaria to the family of an engineer and an architect. Best parents in the world! He was never good at school, and never would be. He started his career as a musician (rhythm guitarist) of a rock-punk-metal band, but soon realized that music was not his thing, or at least that’s what the drummer of the band said...
Kevork then went to film school, fascinated by computers and what they can do, and ended up becoming one of those “not that bad feature film editors.” Then again, he was also fascinated by lazy, bad directors, so he decided to become one himself. Ta-da: here he is!
Kevork got his BA in Film and TV editing at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in 2009 (Sofia, Bulgaria). In 2012, he graduated from the London Film Academy as a Writer & Director (London, UK). Kevork made his directorial debut with the short film, GETTING FAT IN A HEALTHY WAY (2015).

Marina Arzumanova was born in 2001 in the small Armenian town, Jermuk. Around the age of 8, she moved to Istanbul, but later moved back to Yerevan to begin her education at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography, where she graduated in July 2023. During her time as a student, she worked as an assistant, video editor, director, and VFX artist for several film projects. Marina is in the process of completing her first feature length documentary, The Song and I, with Order Film Production, which is set to release in 2025.

Albert is a theatre and film director originally from Moscow and now based in NYC. In 2007 he graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre University with a degree in Set Design and from 2007-2011 worked as a set designer with Pyotr Fomenko, one of the leading theater directors in Europe.

In 2016, he graduated from his second university, the Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) with a degree in theatre directing and in 2016 was Artistic Director of the Sound Media Kids School, a drama and music youth program in Moscow and St Petersburg.

From 2014 to 2018 he was the Main Director of the International Stanislavsky Foundation, a cultural institution dedicated to recognizing outstanding theater makers from around the world. Awardees have included Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellen and Ingmar Bergman.

He has cofounded two production companies, Rosencratz Films and Motherfather productions, both based in New York. His short films and music videos have received recognition from several international and Oscar-qualifying festivals. In 2018, Rudnitsky emigrated to the United States due to the escalating political hostility in Russia.

Rudnitsky worked as script supervisor and dialogue consultant on Sean Baker's Anora, winner of the Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
Notable theatre credits include: The Nose (Taganka Theater), Anima Chroma (Union Foundation), Old Woman (Main St Theatre), Marriage (The State Theatre of Nations), Homemade Dynamite (NY Theater Festival).
Notable short film credits include: The Walking Rebel (Tarkovsky Award, Chicago BlowUp Fest), Someone Who Doesn't Know You (Athens International Film Festival, Global Music Awards), and Mama (Budapest International Short Film Festival).