When the Academy Award nominations were announced late last month, one film, “Sinners,” made history, emerging with 16 nods, or two more than blockbuster classics such as “All About Eve” and “Titanic.”
Credit for this achievement, no doubt, belongs largely to its visionary writer-director Ryan Coogler, but it also reflects a significant vote of confidence from Warner Bros., which backed an ambitious, culturally grounded original film at a moment when studios often default to franchise safety. For Americans of Armenian descent, it carries another, quieter significance: Its producer, Sev Ohanian, is Armenian American.
Anyone curious about the future of film should pay attention. As Hollywood struggles to rethink its artistic and economic foundations — with studios often rehashing franchises with ever-diminishing returns — the rise of culturally specific cinema around the world, at times just meaning the work of people valued by a particular community, offers a glimpse at one potential bright direction.
To observe this dynamic at play, consider Armenian-connected cinema in 2025. Tamara Stepanyan’s “My Armenian Phantoms” premiered in Berlin, weaving personal memory with the lost history of Armenian cinema, and it later became Armenia’s submission for the Academy Awards. Her feature “In the Land of Arto” traveled from Locarno to Busan and Thessaloniki, signaling that Armenian narratives can move fluidly across international audiences. Christine Haroutounian’s “After Dreaming” brought a poetic, postwar Armenian landscape to Berlin and Jerusalem.
These triumphs are inspiring, but do they even matter? After all, it hardly takes an industry insider to realize that the economic and institutional foundations that once sustained adult, mid-budget cinema are disappearing. Festival premieres no longer guarantee distribution, and awards attention no longer guarantees a career.
And yet, films are, first and foremost, a cultural product, which means that like every other product, they rise and fall whenever there’s demand. And the demand for quality, adult — and critically, global-themed — content is actually there. Recent data from Parrot Analytics shows that the share of American demand for non-U.S. films and TV reached about 25.3% in late 2025, up from 17.1%. This means that adults, tired of yet another iteration of unimaginative, uninspired shlock targeting teens, are more open to watching non-English language movies and TV shows now than a few years ago. In English-speaking markets, including the U.S., about 54% of viewers reported watching foreign language content “very often” or “sometimes” in 2024 — up from 43% in 2020, a report from Ampere Analysis says.
Hollywood decision-makers should pay attention. At the moment, boutique labels are hardly supported by the major marketing pushes or large theatrical releases required to make a movie find a significant audience. Instead, they often operate cautiously, co‑financing or partnering with independents, and sometimes moving titles quickly to streaming platforms. This means that even as American audiences show greater interest in foreign language content, the support and visibility for such films are not where they should be.
This is a problem the big studios can easily fix. And to fix it, they ought to remember two crucial things: First, the potential for profit and critical acclaim is absolutely there. Second, film, as an art form, is about more than making money.
These statements may seem contradictory, but they’re absolutely not. People care — deeply, passionately — about the movies not only because they entertain but also because they’re interested in witnessing perennial human pursuits such as preserving memory or asserting cultural presence, two themes “Sinners,” by the way, expertly explored.
Armenian artists and audiences understand this impulse innately. Now, more than ever, Armenian filmmakers are moving from the rank and file of production to helming beautiful, evocative stories that illuminate their unique cultural experiences and provide audiences with a window into new worlds.
As we celebrate “Sinners” this Oscars season, let’s also take a moment to think about what next year’s blockbusters may look like and make sure we fully support works of art that come from all cultures, speak all languages and explore the big, eternal, human themes that have always driven us to the movies.
Alexis Alexanian is a New York City-based film producer, consultant and educator. Her credits include “A League of Their Own,” “Pieces of April” and “Long Way Round.” She is a past president of New York Women in Film & Television and board member of BAFTA North America.
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