Biography
Anahid Yahjian (b. 1989, Bulgaria) is an Armenian American independent writer, director and producer of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. Her latest hybrid/experimental documentary, Domestic Demon, is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and is set to have its world premiere in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2026. She is currently in post-production on her latest narrative short, Nelly, also supported by CGF.
Her commitment to telling true stories (even if they come from her imagination) was shaped by an early love for visual storytelling that was formalized in college and took flight during her coming of age in Armenia. There, she produced the internationally awarded narrative short 140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary LEVON: A Wondrous Life. Since returning to Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF). She was later commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery to create the docu-memoir Hishé.
When not creating her own work, she directs branded content and music videos for clients such as AMC Networks, Amazon Music and Joyful Noise Recordings. Recently, she also supervised post production on televised series and digital content for A24, Netflix, Vice and Spotify.
A citizen of the world, she is fluent in English, Armenian and Bulgarian and can get by in Spanish and Russian. Los Angeles is her home.
Known for
Career timeline
