Armenian filmmaker Jivan Avetisyan has been selected from over 3,400 applicants from 134 countries to attend the Berlinale Talents in Berlin, Germany.

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival. Avetisyan’s new feature film project “Revival,” slated for production in Spring 2021, was the premise of his selection. The six-day summit will be held from February 22 to 27, 2020.

The selection committee shared with Avetisyan: “We appreciate your ambitious approach to filmmaking and to the content of your stories. In 2020, Berlinale Talents is going collective: the six-day summit looks at proven and experimental community models in four creative fields: “Cinema,” “Film Set,” “Company,” and “Society.” Collectives from the film, art, and theater worlds will come to Berlin for the nearly 100 talks, workshops, and networking events.”

Avetisyan thrives to tell Artsakhian stories through film. His latest project “Gate to Heaven” is set to premiere in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at the renowned Alex Theatre. For more information, please email artsakharts@gmail.com. The drama film was co-produced with Armenia, Lithuania, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Czech, Italy, and the U.S.. “Gate to Heaven” is presented in four different languages: English, Armenian, German, and French, but is primarily in English. Richard Sammel (Germany) and Tatiana Spivakova (France) play the lead roles, while Sos Janibekyan (Armenia), Naira Zakaryan (U.S.), Leonardas Pobedonoscevas (Lithuania), Nina Kronjager (Germany), Benedict Freitag (Switzerland), play the supporting roles. The premiere was held in Armenia on October 17 with over 600 attendees.

An international award-winning film director, Avetisyan, is best known for his first feature film “Tevanik” (2014), as well as his second feature film “The Last Inhabitant.” “Tevanik” was screened at the 67th Cannes International Film Festival and received worldwide attention from cinema professionals who were in attendance. It also screened in more than twenty countries worldwide and participated in various film festivals held in Armenia, China, Italy, Romania, and the United States, winning honorary awards including in the category of Best Feature Film. The film was translated into nine languages and was represented by international distribution in Greece, Romania, and the United States.