Glendale native Angela Asatrian’s feature film “A Winter’s Song” embraces the universal spirit of the holidays, touching on themes including romance, self-discovery, dream-chasing and family, while celebrating Armenia’s vibrant landscape and culture.
Asatrian said “A Winter’s Song” is a love letter to Armenia.
In the romantic comedy holiday movie, a struggling musician named Liana, played by singer and songwriter Krista Marina, travels to Armenia for the first time, hoping to reignite her passion for the craft, Asatrian said. As Liana gets swept away by the country’s rich culture, she finds herself on an unexpected journey.
“The holidays are meant to be spent with family, and what better place than the homeland, whether it’s with family you haven’t seen in years, relatives you’ve never met, or just your loved ones at home. We hope the film inspires that feeling of coming together and celebrating where you come from,” Asatrian said.
Cast and crew members, producer Annie Dashtoyan, editor and producer Yvette M. Amirian, composer Arman Aloyan and actor and producer Edgar Damatian, who portrays the character David, all have a connection to Glendale.
“We ended up with a team that was mostly Armenian, and especially filled with incredibly talented Armenian women. It became a beautiful celebration of our community both in Glendale and abroad, and it made the project feel even more meaningful and personal,” Asatrian said.
In sharing Armenia’s beauty, culture, music and traditions with the world, Asatrian said she hopes audiences fall in love with the country in the way that she has. She believes the film will help shine a positive light on Armenia.
“A Christmas film felt like the perfect vehicle for that, because it’s a genre people everywhere love and gather around with their families during the holidays. I also wanted to create something fun and lighthearted, a film that Armenians could feel proud of and enjoy together,” Asatrian said.
The idea for “A Winter’s Song” came to Asatrian while she was sitting in a cafe in Yerevan, Armenia, during the summer of 2022, after screening her documentary “The Armenian Spirit,” based on the 2020 Artsakh War.
Filming the documentary was an emotionally heavy and personal experience, and Asatrian said she wanted her next project to be uplifting, focusing on fun, celebration and romance, “while still supporting Armenia in a meaningful way.”
Asatrian applied her background in social work to the filmmaking process.
“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of my favorite modalities, it emphasizes how powerful our thoughts are,” Asatrian said. “I always remind my clients to be mindful of their inner dialogue, because our thoughts can determine the entire direction of our lives.”
That philosophy, Asatrian said, is reflected in the characters of “A Winter’s Song.” In the movie, Asatrian said Liana embodies the anxious, self-doubting voice many struggle with and Sophia, played by Jessie Bedrossian, represents an encouraging voice.
“The story also highlights resilience, how we rise after we fall, and the importance of the company we keep. The right people can support our growth, while the wrong people can hold us back. Liana’s journey shows why surrounding ourselves with love, encouragement, and belief is essential,” Asatrian said.
Behind the scenes, Asatrian said her experience in the field of social work helped shape the team.
As a therapist, Asatrian said she is trained to recognize strengths, relationship dynamics, personalities, and to build groups that collaborate well, which helped her find the right people for “A Winter’s Song.”
One of Asatrian’s biggest challenges in the making of the film was raising funds. It was Asatrian’s first time writing, producing and directing a narrative feature, which she said came with a lot of uncertainty. She said because a similar project hadn’t been done before in Armenia, many didn’t understand the importance of supporting it.
“I’m incredibly grateful to my executive producers and to the Strobia Foundation for believing in the vision and helping us raise the funds we needed to make this film a reality,” Asatrian said.
Another challenge, Asatrian said, was filming outdoors in Armenia’s harsh winter during the early morning hours. She said the crew took care of one another while filming and combatted the cold with lots of hot Armenian coffee.
Damatian, a music producer living in Armenia in the movie, agreed with Asatrian in that “battling Mother Nature” presented a challenge, but it made certain scenes come alive, sometimes adding a layer of humor.
Some winter movies use special effects to create a cold environment, but the actors’ cold breath in the film was “super natural,” Damatian said.
Damatian said he was drawn to the role of David because he’s always wanted to star in a romantic comedy and to shoot a film in Armenia, adding that participating in the first English language romantic comedy shot in the country was an opportunity he could not give up.
When Asatrian approached him about her idea for “A Winter’s Song,” Damatian said he wanted to help her bring the movie to life for the first-time narrative director.
Damatian said he assisted with forming the cast and crew, recommending the movie’s cinematographer Miko Malkhasyan, Amirian, composer Aloyan, his cousin Judah McFadden, who played Arthur, and his friend Marina, who played Liana in the movie.
“I’d always been a big fan of hers. [She] is an amazing singer, and she had never acted before, but I just felt that her passion for her singing could easily translate into her passion for maybe wanting to be an actress or pursuing an actress role,” Damatian said referring to Marina.
He said the film’s crew assembled like “the Avengers of the Armenian filmmaking community.”
Damatian said he sees similarities between David and himself in the character’s passion, fearlessness and mission to become a better artist.
“Everything I’ve done [has] been in the states, and I’ve been traveling to Armenia every single year, basically, as far as I can remember. Marrying the two loves that I had in my life, which is Armenia, and also being an actor, the idea of being able to create something there was, to me, a no-brainer,” Damatian said.
Damatian said he knew “A Winter’s Song” would resonate with Armenians but that one of his goals was for it to resonate with non-Armenians, too. He compared the movie’s emphasis on Armenian culture to that of Greek culture in the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” movies, which he said audiences loved.
“We knew that if we were authentic, if we just … did the things we did, [that] we’ve known our whole lives that it would translate to a non-Armenian audience, hopefully, very understandably,” Damatian said. “Although there are so many specific Armenian niches and cliches and like, specific storylines in there, people definitely see the big picture of it.”
“A Winter’s Song” was screened at the Armenian Film Society’s 2025 Armenian Film Festival and played in theaters at Look Cinema in Glendale from Nov. 6-12.
The holiday movie also screened at the ARPA International Film Festival at the Chinese Theater on Nov. 8, the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto on Nov. 15 and the Golden Gate Armenian Film Festival on Nov 23.
Asatrian said “A Winter’s Song” held its red carpet event on Nov. 24 at Warner Bros. and the movie launches on the Wonder Project App on Amazon on Sunday, Nov. 30
