Anahid Yahjian (USA) for Nelly. A narrative short film about one transformative night in the lives of three Armenian women in Los Angeles, where the dialogue starts off in English and is progressively taken over by Eastern and Western Armenian. Each of the three languages represent a different facet of the complex Los Angeles diaspora, and their collision speaks to the unintentional hierarchies of power and privilege that are at play both in the real community and thus in the lives of the characters. Dialects, sub-cultures, and sub-identities collide across origin, class, and gender. The endangered language of Western Armenian becomes an empowered one in its foregrounding, taking control of the film’s storytelling and restoring some of what it has lost as it has endured more than a century of steady erasure.

Dzovinar Mikirditsian (France) and Serge Manouguian (Lebanon) for Vayrer. An audiovisual experimental film/installation that merges visual art, music, sound, and contemporary poetry. The primary aim of the project is to transpose Krikor Beledian’s poetic work, Vayrer, into a visual and sonic experience. The aim is to create a new and hybrid artistic language, just as the poet strives to forge his own language and creative/living space through literature. The installation will embody that vision in a multilayered form wherein selected poems will be animated into interpretative atmospheric sound and visual spaces.

JP Merz (USA) for Khazic Songs. A song cycle and accompanying research website that address themes of displacement, resilience, and cultural continuity through a mostly forgotten Armenian music notation system called khaz. Written for a new group of musicians versed across Armenian modal traditions, improvisation, and Western notation, the project’s ensemble includes Armen Adamian (Armenian woodwinds), Antranig Kzirian (oud), Niloufar Shiri (kamancha), and JP Merz (viola and electronics). The songs feature the Western Armenian poetry of Tenny Arlen, and additional texts selected with Jesse Arlen. Rather than “authentically” interpreting khaz, a system historically open to interpretation, Khazic Songs mobilizes the symbols as both a contemporary notational device and a metaphor of loss and possibility.

Knar Rita Guokdjian (France/Armenia), Ani Tanelian (France/Armenia), and Mariam Arushanyan (Nagorno Karabakh/Armenia) for tchat pat (չաթ-փաթ). A participative podcast in eight episodes that uncovers common human experiences through the diverse voices of the Western Armenian-speaking community. Each themed episode reflects the inner stream of consciousness of today’s Western Armenian speakers, tackling a wide range of universal subjects such as feelings, relationships, or decision-making. This audio platform encourages expression, regardless of form and language proficiency, enhancing a variety of accents and intonations. Showcased as vibrant and enjoyable, the language serves as a vehicle for stories and thoughts, emotions and reflections, wisdom and everyday poetry one needs on their journey.  

Marie Yevkiné Tirard (France) and Gohar Martirosyan (France/Armenia) for Arcane Voices — If Only I Could Sing Her Words. A film project including original experimental music for Saz and voice composed from the poems of Yevkiné Diarian, a young woman exiled in 1915. Her poems, in Western Armenian, instruments of survival, remained silent relics until they were rediscovered 100 years later. The project transforms her solitary unspoken words into immersive film and collective resonance. The poetics of the language is reincarnated within a contemporary version of the mystical Ashugh (troubadour), where music, storytelling, and philosophical reflection intertwine. The Saz is played as an extension of the voice. Visually and sonically, the music unfolds in the haunting landscape of Western Armenia, with the camera moving like a breath, tracing the fading boundary between voice, absence, and memory. The project rejects nostalgia as mere mourning, instead transforming it into a form of creative resistance.

Nayiri Khatchadourian (Armenia) for Weaving Culture: Anna Boghiguian. A bilingual publication (Western Armenian and English) exploring contemporary carpet weaving culture in Armenia through the lens of Cairo-born contemporary visual artist Anna Boghiguian's residency at AHA collective in Armenia. The book will document the artistic and curatorial process, research, and collaboration between the Diaspora-Armenian artist, curator, and master women weavers from Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, emphasizing the intersection of carpet making, contemporary art, and curatorial practice. Weaving, as a collaborative medium of storytelling, offers a profound way to address historical memory, sociopolitical challenges, and cultural innovation. The project will contribute to the revitalization of language by embedding it in contemporary discourse and artistic expression. The synthesis of two intangible heritages together: language and craftsmanship will bring a new creative aspect to be explored.

Raffi Joe Wartanian (USA) for The Music of Language: Oud as a Vessel for Poetry. A project that will cultivate a collection of new Western Armenian poetry written by youth and inspired by original oud compositions. Through a series of workshops, participants will engage with renowned Western Armenian poets in readings, craft discussions, and guided writing exercises responding to oud music. The initiative will emphasize global participation, particularly beyond the USA, and will conclude with a worldwide poetry contest. Selected works will be published in a print and digital anthology, showcased on a multimedia website, and featured in a music video combining winning poetry with an original oud composition, fostering a dynamic fusion of tradition and innovation.

Shamiram Khachatryan (Armenia) for ARCHIVE-mine (ԱՐԽԻՒԱԿԱՆ). A five-episode scroll comic with occasional tremors of animation. It follows the drifting presence of the creator through libraries in Yerevan, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, Athens, Tbilisi, and Venice, where Armenian illustrated periodicals “decay” from a time when printing was still in mode and in demand. It is part research project part personal essay in disguise – a cartoonist wandering among ghosts, flipping through forgotten pages. Made of still images, modest movements, and quiet inner monologues, the comic scrolls downward like time showcasing many archives that have not been touched in decades...

ԱՐԽԻՒԱԿԱՆis a layered wordplay, echoing Ոդիսական Odyssey and merging Արխիւ Archive, while «ական» meaning mine or bomb, gives the project an explosive undertone: what’s buried in the archives might detonate – holding something volatile, powerful, and deeply personal.

Tigran Amiryan and Arsen Abrahamyan (Armenia) (Cultural and Social Narratives Laboratory) for Address: Balat – Orphanage. A memory project resulting in an illustrated trilingual book (Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian, and English), born from years of interdisciplinary research into the cultural and social memory of the Khorenian School in Istanbul’s multiethnic Balat district. Once a school and later an orphanage sheltering hundreds of Genocide survivors, the building now stands abandoned, silently embodying layers of resilience and coexisting, loss and collective memory carrying the fragility of the cultural memory of Armenians in Turkey. Through archives, urban and architectural fieldwork, and oral histories, the project reweaves fragmented narratives into a living memory, bridging languages, generations, and erased geographies. By uncovering hidden stories and creating visual and textual landscapes, the book reclaims both place and voice, reviving a piece of Armenian heritage nearly lost to time.

Yelena Nersesyan (Armenia) for Mkhitarank. A medieval detective in graphic novel format that will be published as a book. A fictional story with real historical characters and locations, where the main characters, Mkhitar Heratsi and Mkhitar Gosh, as a solace for their curious minds and souls, join to solve a mysterious murder case… Mkhitarank will also serve as a linguistic experiment, blending Western and Eastern Armenian. Mkhitar Heratsi is portrayed as a Western Armenian scholar who began his journey in Western Armenia, particularly in Cilician Armenia, while Mkhitar Gosh represents Eastern Armenia. What follows is an adventure to be discovered and a mystery crime to be uncovered.