Yulianna Anikieieva: Bringing Art House Cinema Back to Dubai
In a city known for its futuristic skyline and fast-paced lifestyle, one cultural entrepreneur is quietly rebuilding a love for classic cinema. Yulianna Anikieieva, a Ukrainian-born film curator and founder of the Art House Movie Club, has spent more than a decade in Dubai shaping a new space for thoughtful, auteur-driven film. Drawing on experience in Los Angeles, where she studied at the New York Film Academy and staged theatre productions, Yulianna combines Hollywood training with a deep passion for European and Ukrainian cinema to create a truly global perspective on film.
Fourteen years after moving to Dubai, Yulianna has turned her Art House Movie Club into a lively community for film lovers, artists and cultural professionals. Over the past three years the club has grown into a regular meeting point where people discuss carefully selected films and explore how cinema reflects society. Now she is preparing her most ambitious project yet – the first Art House Movie Festival, planned for October 2026. The programme will showcase works by directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and many more, giving local audiences a rare chance to see the classics of art house cinema on the big screen.
For Yulianna, screenings are only the starting point. Each event is accompanied by lectures, introductions and conversations that explain the historical and cultural background of a film and help viewers learn the “language” of cinema. In this way, the club functions as both a cultural venue and an educational platform, encouraging critical thinking and creativity. Her work as a critic and commentator – including reviews from the Cannes Film Festival and an active presence on social media – brings international context to Dubai’s cultural scene, while interviews in regional magazines highlight her as one of the key voices behind the city’s art house revival.
“Art has always been humanity’s real treasure. I want people to feel that cinema is not just entertainment, but something essential and inspiring,” Yulianna says. By returning great films to the screen and teaching audiences how to read them, she hopes to nurture a new generation of filmmakers, curators and film-literate viewers in the UAE and beyond. As Dubai continues to evolve into a regional hub for culture and creativity, projects like the Art House Movie Club and the upcoming festival promise to leave a lasting mark on the city’s cultural fabric. Through community building, education and an unwavering belief in the power of film, Yulianna Anikieieva is redefining what it means to live – and love – cinema in the Middle East.
Visit Art House Movie Club’s site: https://arthousemovie.club
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