Civilnet
By Alexander Pracht
Armenia plans to enforce new legislation requiring all movie theaters and television channels to provide Armenian-language dubbing or subtitles for foreign films, the country’s culture minister announced in parliament on Tuesday.
“Film distributors have the necessary means to add Armenian subtitles, so this can now be enforced by law,” Zhanna Andreasyan said, presenting the bill.
Currently, most cinemas in Armenia screen foreign films either in the original English without Armenian captions or with Russian dubbing, leaving monolingual Armenian speakers limited to local productions or no choice but to skip the theater altogether. Occasional screenings of older films with Armenian captions are held, but these remain sporadic.
A law mandating Armenian translation was first passed in 2021, setting a gradual deadline of 2030. Under the proposed amendment, however, the requirement would take effect much sooner, beginning January 1, 2026.
Russian has no official status in Armenia, but it is widely spoken across the country. During the Soviet era, foreign films were almost exclusively dubbed into Russian rather than subtitled, creating an understanding that cinema was a Russian-language domain.
After independence, Armenian theaters largely continued the practice by purchasing the same Russian-dubbed versions of foreign films shown in Russian cinemas, apparently as a cost-saving measure on translation and localization.
Stories
