Culture

A Day of Discussions, Workshops, Film Screening, Concert and Exhibitions – 
Sunday, 25 October 2026, 2:00 PM–9:30 PM

Programme:

Exhibitions (throughout the afternoon, presentation at 4:00 PM)

• OCHRE–ENSAD: Urfa Weaving Techniques
• Valentina Davitavyan, artist from the Rambalkoshe Collective

2:00 PM–4:30 PM: “Biodiversity Fresco” workshops led by Arthur Carabedian. Pre-registration.

4:45 PM–6:15 PM: Screening of The Snow Leopard by Vincent Munier

6:45 PM–8:15 PM: Discussion: “Representing the Living World,” with the participation of:

• Momoko Seto, Japanese filmmaker and science filmmaker. A research engineer and director of scientific documentaries and portraits at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) since 2006, she received the CNRS Crystal Medal in 2021.
• Vincent Munier, filmmaker and photographer
• Marianna Karapetyan, founder of Electric Architects and Monotopia, architect and designer, and architect of the Jrvezh Forest project
• Moderator: Karen Avetisyan, Artistic Director of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival

8:30 PM–9:30 PM: Concert by Martin Shahbazyan

In partnership with Rambalkoshe Collective, Woods Center and OCHRE–ENSAD.

Register to the "Biodiversity Fresco" workshop

Masterclass and film screening – Saturday, 24 October 2026, 2:30–5:00 PM

Screening of Planètes at 2:30 PM, followed at 4:00 PM by a masterclass with Momoko Seto on the making of the film and her career.

Open to TUMO students and the general public.

In partnership with the TUMO Center and the SunChild International Environmental Festival.

Exhibition – 19 October to 19 November 2026

Opening ceremony: Saturday, 24 October, at 11:00 AM, with Vincent Munier in attendance

Sixty photographs by Vincent Munier, combining a retrospective selection of his work with images from his film Whispers of the Forest.

In partnership with the Municipality of Yerevan and the SunChild International Environmental Festival.

French Film Festival for Biodiversity – 23–30 October 2026

French films exploring the living world and biodiversity, accompanied by Q&A sessions and masterclasses with two exceptional guests: Planètes director Momoko Seto and filmmaker Vincent Munier.

All films will be screened with Armenian and English subtitles.

23 October | 7:00 PM – Moscow Cinema, Red Hall, Abovyan 18

Planètes (2025, 1h25) – Momoko Seto

Festival opening, followed by a Q&A with the director

24 October | 7:00 PM – Moscow Cinema, Red Hall, Abovyan 18

Le Chant des forêts (2025, 1h35) – Vincent Munier

Screening followed by a discussion with the director

25 October | 7:00 PM – Moscow Cinema, Red Hall, Abovyan 18

Le Règne animal (2023, 2h08) – Thomas Cailley

25 October | 4:45 PM – Woods Center, Jrvezh

30 October | 6:00 PM – COP17 Green Zone, Main Stage, Tsitsernakaberd Park 1

La Panthère des neiges (2021, 1h32) – Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier

27 October | 4:00 PM – Yerevan's 2750 anniversary park, Urban Biodiversity Zone, Italy street 2

30 October | 3:00 PM – COP17 Green Zone, Main Stage, Tsitsernakaberd Park 1

Bonjour le monde ! (2019, 1h01) – Anne-Lise Koehler and Éric Serre

In partnership with the SunChild International Environmental Festival, the Municipality of Yerevan and Moscow Cinema.

More information

Download the program

Exhibition – 17 October to 9 November 2026 Opening reception: Saturday, 17 October, at 4:00 PM

This exhibition presents the exchanges that took place in 2025–2026 between the Academy and the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (HEAR) around the Dilijan Summer Academy. It brings together installations by invited artists and works by students exploring water, living systems, and the consequences of poor water management.

In partnership with SAFAA, the Haute École des Arts du Rhin and Fab Lab Armenia Education Foundation

More information

After "The Velvet Queen" (2021), Vincent Munier delivers another fascinating documentary about the secret life of forests. Accompanied by his father Michel and his son Simon, the photographer explores the woods in search of the animals that live there, from the most elusive to the most magnificent.

Winner of two César Awards in 2026, in the categories of Best Documentary Film and Best Sound, this feature film is an ode to the forest, its inhabitants and the art of attentive observation of living things, accessible and captivating for all audiences.

Free admission

Trailer

Laura Wandel's "Adam's Sake" follows daily life in a paediatric ward where tension and care coexist around every corner. A deeply moving film that delicately observes the interactions between caregivers, parents and children.

Selected for Critics' Week at Cannes 2025, this feature film combines realism and emotional intensity, offering a sensitive and humane perspective on childhood and fragility.

Free admission

Trailer

Albert Camus's "The Stranger" is back on the big screen, this time directed by François Ozon. Presented in competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, the film was nominated for the 2026 César Awards, notably in the Best Actor category for Benjamin Voisin.

In black and white, Ozon composes a tense and luminous work, where silence and light shape Meursault's destiny. A powerful encounter between a great text and the vision of a major figure in French cinema.

Free admission

Trailer

This is Lætitia Dosch's first feature film as a director. "Dog on Trial" is a Swiss comedy full of imagination and humour. The film combines absurd situations, endearing characters and little surprises that shake up our everyday lives. 

The Festival invites you to discover this original work, where the unexpected and playfulness take precedence over the serious, offering a humorous and witty take on the world around us.

Free admission

Trailer

The Festival presents "Young Mothers", the new film by the Dardenne brothers. In the heart of a maternity home, five teenage girls face the choices and upheavals imposed by early motherhood.

Synopsis

Awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, this sensitive drama explores, with the soberness characteristic of Belgian filmmakers, the fragilities and impulses of these young women at the dawn of their adult lives.

Free admission

Trailer

Borgo (2023) is a prison thriller by Stéphane Demoustier, inspired by a true story. 

Synopsis

Melissa is a young prison guard in Corsica. Having recently moved there with her family, she must juggle her role inside the prison with the tensions that are stirring up the island. An intense thriller where suspense and ethical dilemmas intersect, driven by Hafsia Herzi's striking performance.

Free admission

Trailer

The latest film from the Larrieu brothers, "Jim's Story" is an adaptation of Pierric Bailly's novel of the same name, selected for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Karim Leklou won the 2025 César Award for Best Actor for his subtle performance in the film.

Synopsis

A discreet, reliable man, ‘a kind soul’ who becomes involved in a child's life, weaving a bond over the years that transforms his own existence. The Larrieu brothers have created a delicate melodrama about fatherhood, the passing of time and the relationships that shape a life.

Free admission

Trailer

With "Bootlegger", Algonquin and French director Caroline Monnet makes her feature film debut, continuing her exploration of identity, memory and the political assertion of Indigenous communities on screen.

Synopsis

In northern Quebec, Mani, a young lawyer, returns to her community to change laws inherited from the past. Her commitment reignites deep tensions, particularly around prohibition and alcohol smuggling. The film highlights the divisions within a community confronted with its past and its choices for the future.

Free admission

Trailer

Presented in the official selection at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, "Colours of time" is the new film by Cédric Klapisch. The director unfolds a choral fresco spanning time, bringing together several generations of actors on screen. The film was honoured with three César Award nominations in 2026, for the Best Female Revelation, Costume Design and Production Design.

Synopsis

In 2025, members of the same family inherit a house that has been abandoned. As they explore the premises, four cousins gradually discover traces of a mysterious woman named Adel, who left for Paris in 1895. Set between the present day and the Belle Époque, the film explores the themes of transmission, memory and the meaning we give to our heritage.

Free admission

Trailer

The Dialog Music Project, founded by talented trumpet player Tigran Suchyan, will take you on a musical journey where jazz, hip-hop and urban folklore come together to create a unique sound.

Then explore the captivating world of Hogh Arthun, an innovative duo formed by "Hogh" and "Arthur Aleq", fusing traditional and electronic music for an unforgettable sonic experience.

Save the date! Invite your friends and get ready for a great musical evening.

Free admission.

Exhibition "Engraved stopovers" by engraver and curator of the Biennale Internationale de Gravure de Sarcelles, Jean-Pierre Tanguy at the National Center of Esthetics in Yerevan, organized by KulturDialog and the Biennale Internationale de l'Estampe d'Erevan with the support of the French Embassy / Institut français d'Arménie.

The exhibition features some 200 works by the printmaker and curator, created during his travels in Asia, Spain, Morocco, Venice, Istanbul and New York.

Alongside the exhibition, master classes and lectures will be offered, enabling Armenian artists to perfect their burin engraving techniques.

The exhibition will run from May 3 to May 27, 2024.

In the framework of the Saison de la Francophonie, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia presented three concerts in cooperation with the French Embassy / Institut français d'Arménie.

The closing concert is dedicated to Francis Poulenc's 125th birthday, with the Armenian premiere of his Stabat Mater. With soloist Jean-Paul Gasparian, one of the new stars of French piano.

National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (extended staff)

National Chamber Choir of Armenia

Yerevan State Chamber Choir

Conductor: Philipp Amelung/Germany

Soloist: Jean-Paul Gasparian/piano, France

Program :

Francis Poulenc, Stabat Mater

Francis Poulenc, Piano concerto, FP 146

Written by Sigrid Carré-Lecoindre

Director and performer: Lena Paugam

Synopsis

The story portrays a couple who see violence gradually creeping onto their living-room sofa, turning their relationship into a tragedy of love. The story begins in a mundane, everyday way, but evolves to extremes where cold and fear predominate.

The performance is in French with Armenian surtitles.

Admission is free!

The exhibition, designed by AHA Collective and running until July 5, highlights the close ties that bind us to the reed and its soils, from the Arax River to the Mediterranean basin, and the similarities between the wind instruments of traditional Armenian music and French Baroque music.

National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia

Conductor: Hmayak Durgarian (Spain)

Violin: François Pineau-Benois (France)

Program:

Albert Roussel, Sinfonietta

Josephe Bologne Saint-Georges, Violin Concerto, Op. 2

Camille Saint-Saëns, Rondo Capriccioso

Winner of the Cristal for Best Feature Film at the 2022 Annecy Film Festival, and nominated at Cannes and the César Awards, “Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be” is an animated film released in 2022 and directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre.

Synopsis

From a large blank sheet of paper in Paris, Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny bring to life a laughing, mischievous little boy, Little Nicholas. Nicholas's childhood is full of joys and learning, as he fights, argues, plays, gets into mischief and receives punishments in spades. As the story unfolds, the boy slips into the workshop of his creators, playfully questioning them. Sempé and Goscinny tell him about their meeting, their friendship, but also about their careers, their secrets and their childhoods.

Free admission.

Trailer

Blandine Lenoir won the César for Best Short Film in 2011 for her film “Monsieur l'Abbé”, and the Festival is presenting her latest film “Angry Annie”, released in 2022.

Synopsis

February 1974. Annie, a working-class mother of two, finds herself unintentionally pregnant when she meets the MLAC - Mouvement pour la Liberté de l'Avortement et de la Contraception (Movement for the Freedom of Abortion and Contraception), which performs illegal abortions. Embraced by this unique movement, whose focus was on practical help for women and the sharing of knowledge, she found a new meaning to her life in the fight to pass the abortion law.

Free admission․

Trailer

Jean-Baptiste Durand's first feature film, released in 2023, “Junkyard Dog” won the 2024 César for Best First Film and Best Male Revelation for actor Raphaël Quenard.

Synopsis

In a tiny village in the south of France, Dog and Mirales have a conflicting friendship. The duo is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Elsa, a young woman with whom Dog falls in love. Jealous, Mirales tries, as best he can, to grow up and become independent.

Free admission.

Trailer

Released in 2022, Alain Ughetto's “No Dogs or Italians Allowed” has been nominated for Best Animated Film at the César Awards 2024, after winning the European Award for Best Animated Film 2022 and the Jury Prize at the Annecy Festival 2022.

Synopsis

Early 20th century, northern Italy, Ughettera, birthplace of the Ughetto family. Now that life in the region has become very difficult, the Ughetto dream of starting all over again abroad. As legend has it, Luigi Ughetto crossed the Alps and began a new life in France, forever changing the destiny of his beloved family. Here, his grandson recounts their story.

Free admission․

Trailer

The film “The Animal Kingdom”, directed by Thomas Cailley and co-written with Pauline Munier, was released in 2023. The film has been chosen to open the "Un Certain Regard" selection at Cannes in 2023, and has won five César awards, including the one for best visual effects.

Synopsis

In a world beset by a wave of mutations that are gradually transforming some humans into animals, François does everything he can to save his wife, who has been affected by this mysterious phenomenon. As the area becomes populated by creatures of a new kind, he leads Émile, their 16-year-old son, on a quest that will change their lives forever.

Free admission.

Trailer

“The Color of the Pomegranate” at the National Opera of Armenia. With choreography by Mourad Merzouki based on an original idea by Saté Khachatryan, this show combines hip-hop, electro music and Armenian folklore to celebrate the genius of Sergei Paradjanov.

The 3rd International Summer Festival of Contemporary Dance in Armenia SUMMEET presents : WE ARE MONCHICHI | Wang Ramirez Dance Company, France

Choreographs: Honji Wang & Sébastien Ramirez

Shihya Peng was born in Taiwan but lives in Paris. Marco di Nardo was born in Naples but lives in Berlin. How can they be together when everything separates them? W.A.M. is a battle dance in search of harmony. Here the bodies flirt with irony - the desire for joy and melancholy. The dancers' bodies turn into two distorted mirrors, revealing more to the viewer than they expect. W.A.M. is a secret history, a universal dance, which is accompanied by the recitatives of Fabrice Melquio.

The French Embassy/Institut français of Armenia organizes a big Franco-Armenian concert for the Fête de la musique on Wednesday June 21 at 8pm in the English Park!

Ohane Dourian, French jazz pianist and grandson of the famous conductor, teams up with musicians from Yerevan for a mixed, truly contemporary experience.

Then Katil, an emblematic group of the new Armenian scene, will captivate you with their blend of ancestral musical traditions and modern sounds.

Save the date and invite your friends to join us in celebrating musical diversity at this open evening!

Free admission

Third concert by the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA) as part of the Saison de la Francophonie in cooperation with the French Embassy / French Institute of Armenia. In partnership with the Belgian Embassy.

Conductor - Hmayak Durgaryan (Spain)

Violin - François Pineau-Benois (France)

On the program:

Henri Vieuxtemps, Concerto pour Violon No.5, Op.37

Henri Vieuxtemps, Fantasia appassionata, Op.35

Maurice Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte

François-Joseph Gossec, Symphonie en sol mineur

Join the Alexis Paul exhibition at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, organized in partnership with the French Embassy / Institut français d'Arménie!

Alexis Paul is a contemporary artist who explores popular cultures through the barrel organ. Using a punch-card reader and a crank borrowed from this portable mechanical musical instrument, he transforms its traditional use by replacing musical notation with the variety of ornaments in Armenian embroidery. His exhibition features visual and sound installations, as well as performances inspired by this ongoing research.

The exhibition is free and open from April 14 to June 25.

The National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA) presents three concerts as part of the Saison de la Francophonie in cooperation with the French Embassy / Institut français of Armenia.

Conductor: Robert Mlkeyan

On the program:

César Franck, Les Sept dernières paroles du Christ en croix

Gabriel Fauré, Cantique de Jean Racine

Lorenzo Mattotti's "The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily" has been nominated in the Un certain regard selection at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and in the Best Animated Feature category at the 2020 César Awards.

Synopsis

When his only son, Tonio, is kidnapped by hunters, Léonce, the King of Bears, invade the land of men with his clan to find him. With the help of a strange magician, he takes on the army of the Grand Duke, a horrible tyrant. Léonce will do anything to find his son, even invade Sicily!

Free admission.

Trailer

"Magnetic Beats", the debut feature from Vincent Maël Cardona, released in 2021, has been selected for the "Directors' Fortnight" at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021. It won an award at the 2021 Deauville Film Festival and a César for Best First Film the following year.

Synopsis

A small French town in the early 80s. Philippe lives in the shadow of his brother Jérôme, the black sun of the gang. Between pirate radio, their father's garage and the threat of military service, the two brothers are unaware that they are living the last glorious moments of a world on the verge of extinction.

Free admission․

Trailer

Laurent Cantet won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2008 with "The Class". The Festival presents his latest film "Arthur Rambo".

Synopsis

Who is this Karim D. ? The new young writer whom the media can't get enough of? Or his alias, Arthur Rambo, the author of old hate-fuellled messages which are dredged up, one day, from social media websites?

Free admission.

Trailer

Didier Barcelo's "Freestyle", released in 2022, has been selected for the Brussels International Film Festival 2022.

Synopsis

One morning Louise finds herself trapped in her car, struck down by a panic attack as soon as she wants to get out. Paul steals the car in which she was trapped. And here they are, together, heading off on a comic road-movie!

Free admission.

Trailer

Eric Gravel's "Full Time" was released in 2022. Eric Gravel won Best Director and Laure Calamy Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for this film. It also picked up awards at a number of international festivals, and was nominated four times for the 2023 César Awards.

Synopsis

Julie struggles alone to raise her two children in the countryside and keep her job in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets an interview for a job that matches her aspirations, a general strike breaks out, paralyzing the transport system. Julie's fragile equilibrium is shaken. She then embarks on a frantic race, at the risk of collapsing.

Free admission.

Trailer

The National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA) presents three concerts as part of the Saison de la Francophonie in cooperation with the French Embassy / French Institute of Armenia.

Conductor - Ralph Szigeti (France)

On the program

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les Indes Galantes, Danse des Sauvages

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Concert en sextuor pour clavecin n°4

François Couperin, Les Nations, Premier Ordre "La Française": Passacaglia

Georges Bizet/Rodion Shchedrin, Carmen Suite

Charles Gounod, Marche funèbre

L'Odéon - Théâtre de l'Europe performs for the first time in Armenia!

Within the framework of the Yerevan International Theatre Festival, come and discover the play "Time of Joy", directed by Stéphane Braunschweig, director of the Odéon, one of Europe's most prestigious stages.

Performance in French, surtitled in Armenian

"Time of Joy" proves to be a theatrical experience filled with moments of emotion and grace, enhanced by Stéphane Braunschweig's spirited, carefully sculpted adaptation. This play offers a glimmer of hope in a sometimes gloomy world, where human relationships are at the heart of all concerns.