Arseni Khachaturan is a cinematographer based in New York. He was born in Minsk, Belarus, and was invested in arts from a young age, experimenting with medium-format photography together with his mother, who is a photographer. He later transitioned into graphic design, drawing and music, only to realise that he was mostly interested in filmmaking, as it allowed him to work together with a team of like-minded people and collaborate on documentaries and short films together.
Arseni was accepted to study cinematography and TV camera operating at the Belarusian Academy of Arts, where he spent two years. At that time he was already travelling in Europe for various film projects and building a body of work in film and commercials. In 2012 he permanently moved to the US and continued to work as a DP, spending time between Los Angeles and New York.
He shot a hybrid documentary film, City of the Sun, in the country of Georgia, and the film had its world premiere at the 67th Berlinale. Afterwards he worked in Nigeria with Chuko and Arie Esiri on their debut feature film This Is My Desire, which premiered at the 70th Berlinale Forum and was included in the Criterion Collection. In 2015 in New York he met Dea Kulumbegashvili, with whom he started to work on her short film Léthé, which premiered in Cannes. Following that successful collaboration, they continued to work together, and shortly after started to prepare her debut feature film Beginning.
Beginning was in the 2020 Cannes Official Selection and won four awards at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and a European Film Awards nomination, and was Georgia’s submission for the Oscars. In 2021 Arseni worked with Luca Guadagnino on his film Bones and All, which won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 79th Venice Film Festival, and the Gianni di Venanzo award for Best Cinematography. Afterwards he worked with Sam Levinson on his HBO series The Idol, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2024 Arseni finished Dea Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore feature April, which premiered in Competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival to great critical acclaim and won the Special Jury Prize. It had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to play at the New York Film Festival and the London Film Festival. Arseni followed this by working with Kristoffer Borgli on his A24 feature The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
