Inna Sahakyan (b. 1977)
Birthplace:
Yerevan, Armenia
Born:
January 1, 1977
Inna Sahakyan is a documentary director, producer, and scriptwriter, born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia. Inna’s work focuses on uncovering untold stories on the nature of humanity via creative and intimate filmmaking. Her feature-length debut as a director, The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia (2010, co-directed with Arman Yeritsyan), told the story of two of Armenia’s most celebrated tightrope dancers and was awarded the Best Armenian Film Award at the Golden Apricot IFF. One of Inna’s recent documentaries, an Armenia-Netherlands co-production, Mel (2021, co-directed with Paul Cohen), follows the story of the once beloved female weightlifting champion whose reputation was tarnished when his identity as a transgender male became public knowledge. The film was awarded a special mention at the Thessaloniki IDFF in 2022. In 2022, Inna completed the feature-length animated narrative documentary Aurora’s Sunrise. A monumental seven-year project made in co-production with Germany and Lithuania, it tells the true story of how a fourteen-year-old girl escaped the slaughter of the Armenian genocide and embarked upon an odyssey that took her to the heights of Hollywood stardom.