A reality-TV family may have put Armenia on the pop kulture map – but away from the Calabasas Hills, the tiny country nestled between the Caucasus Mountains and about six other countries you’d struggle to point to on a map has a long, proud history of cuisine, culture and creativity that predates Kris Jenner’s entire empire by roughly 1,700 years.
Turns out there’s more to Armenian excellence than a good contour and a set of SKIIMS. Exhibit A: cinema. For its 10th anniversary, the Armenian Film Festival Australia is bringing the proof to Ryde. Sit down, Kim – this one’s not about you.
The Vitals
The Armenian Film Festival Australia (AFFA) started in 2016 as a scrappy, community-run labour of love. Ten years on, it’s Australia’s only national festival dedicated to Armenian and diaspora cinema, and 2026 is its biggest, most ambitious lap yet – expanding to Perth for the first time and touching down in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide too.
Sydney dates: 11–27 September 2026
Venue: Event Cinemas Top Ryde, Level 4, Top Ryde City Shopping Centre
Tickets: via the festival’s Humanitix page
What To Actually Go See
Opening Night Gala – Vazgen: The Last Sparapet Kick things off the way the festival intends: with a cocktail party, Armenian wine, Armenian food, live entertainment, and a film about a war hero. Vazgen: The Last Sparapet tells the story of Vazgen Sargsyan, the writer-turned-military-commander who founded the modern Armenian army, won a war, dreamed of economic reform, and was then assassinated in parliament – because apparently even in cinema, Armenia doesn’t do quiet endings. It was Armenia’s highest-grossing film of 2025, so bring tissues and maybe don’t wear the good eyeliner.
Ladies Night – A Winter’s Song, plus an evening with Krista Marina Exclusive to Sydney, and frankly the most “So Sydney” event on the whole national program: a screening of the romantic drama A Winter’s Song followed by an intimate live jazz set from the film’s own featured vocalist, Krista Marina. Wine’s included. Bring the girls, cry a little, stay for the jazz.
Flix & Mix – Aram, Aram (Under 35s Night) The film that opened the very first AFFA back in 2016 returns for the anniversary lap. It’s a coming-of-age drama about a 12-year-old Armenian boy uprooted from Little Armenia to live with his grandfather in America, caught between old-world values and new-school identity – basically every immigrant-family group chat, but make it cinema.
Lion – 10th Anniversary Screening + Q&A A double anniversary: the festival turns 10, and so does Lion, the Oscar-nominated Australian film starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and David Wenham. Executive producer Shahen Mekertician sticks around after the screening for a Q&A, presumably to explain how a film about a lost Indian boy ended up as an honorary Armenian film festival alumnus. (Producer credits: is there anything they can’t do.)
In the Land of Arto French-Armenian director Tamara Stepanyan flies in for this one – a film that’s already Armenia’s official submission for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards, and which scooped multiple honours at the 2026 Anahit Awards. Camille Cottin plays a woman arriving in Armenia to legally process her husband’s death, only to uncover a very different story about how he actually died. Bleak, beautiful, and reportedly not the film to watch on a first date.
Closing Night & Awards – Outliving Shakespeare Inna Sahakyan – the filmmaker behind the acclaimed animated documentary Aurora’s Sunrise – attends in person for the festival’s closing documentary, about elderly residents in a Soviet-era retirement home rehearsing a play to fend off loneliness. It’s followed by the AFFA Awards ceremony, judged by a panel from Armenia and the global diaspora. Consider it Armenia’s answer to the Logies, if the Logies occasionally made you weep about the human condition.
Also screening: Poqr Mher (a myth-meets-modern-life family adventure comedy for the kids), a documentary following a Turkish photographer uncovering the Armenian history buried in his own family home, and – new for 2026 – a spotlight on five Australian-made Armenian stories, proof the diaspora’s storytelling engine is alive and well right here in NSW.
Cutting to the Credits
Every film requires English subtitles, so no excuses about “not really being a subtitles person” – that ship sailed the moment Netflix made you watch Squid Game. Doors open 15 minutes before sessions, online sales cut off 30 minutes before, and parking’s sorted at Top Ryde City. Basically: turn up, sit down, prepare to have your one-liner about the Kardashians gently, thoroughly retired.
The Armenian Film Festival Australia runs in Sydney from 11–27 September 2026 at Event Cinemas Top Ryde, before heading to Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. Tickets and full program at armenianfilmfestival.com.au.
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