Nominees for the 18th Annual Arpa International Film Festival will be feted at 7:30 p.m. on November 15 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Arpa Festival awards span five categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Short Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
For a filmmaker, having your film selected for screening in a film festival is an honor that enhances significantly with a category nomination. For Arpa Festival nominees, the prospect of their nominated film winning a category award is certainly thrilling and can be nerve wracking beyond measure. This year’s Festival nominations are a highly impressive selection of unique and powerful cinematic works, written and directed by bold, innovative, and resourceful filmmakers, who are all driven by incisive messages to, in some cases, take considerable risks to shoot and complete their film.
“The process in selecting the nominees is a difficult one, and yet it’s one of the most interesting aspects of programming a film festival,” conveyed Michael Ashjian, Arpa International Film Festival Executive Director. “Since we have a multifarious selection of films from all over the world, each nominated category encompasses a diverse group of films in their aesthetic, story, acting and technical approach. It’s fascinating to see how filmmakers from around the globe tackle similar problems and issues and yet portray them in uniquely different ways.”
Opening the much anticipated Arpa Film Festival is the world premiere screening of the feature film Lost Birds. It’s a heartwarming story with themes of love and family, and is the first film made in Turkey about the 1915 Armenian exile. The Lost Birds filmmaking team, Ela Alyamac and Aren Perdeci, is nominated for two additional awards in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories. This intrepid duo has stood strong — amid pressure from the Turkish film community and other daunting roadblocks — in their pursuit of creative freedom and realizing their film on the big screen.
Closing the Festival is the short film The Sandwich Island Man, which has garnered three awards, one mention, and a 2015 Coups de Coeur Cannes Film Festival listing. Many other 2015 Arpa Festival nominees have too amassed awards and recognition. Feature film Three Windows and a Hanging has won six awards; documentary film Tell Spring Not to Come This Year has received five awards; short film While They Were Flying to the Moon has earned five awards and will have its U.S. premiere at the Arpa International Film Festival on November 14.
Of course, one of the hottest tickets for the Festival is the Closing Program ticket which includes the Awards Ceremony. Priced at $45, this special ticket contains the screening of The Sandwich Island Man, the Arpa International Film Festival Awards Ceremony, and a private Post-Awards Reception celebration.
And the 2015 Awards Nominees are …
BEST FEATURE FILM
Lost Birds (2015) | Turkey | Director: Ela Alyamac, Aren Perdeci | Writers: Ela Alyamac, Aren Perdeci | Language: Turkish, Armenian
Off (2015) | Serbia | Director: Predrag Stojic | Writer: Marko Krstic | Language: Serbian
Three Windows and a Hanging (2014) | Kosovo | Director: Isa Qosja | Writer: Zymber Kelmendi | Language: Albanian
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Aliyah Dada (2015) | Romania | Director: Oana Giurgiu | Language: English
Armenia Sings on in Our Hearts (2015) | Brazil | Director: Isabella Bablumian | Writer: Isabella Bablumian | Language: English
Daylight After a Century (2015) | United Kingdom | Director: Hollie Harrington | Language: English
Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise (2015) | Germany | Director: Volker Schaner | Writer: Volker Schaner | Language: English
My Life in China (2014) | U.S.A. | Director: Kenneth Eng | Writer: Ehren Parks | Language: Chinese
Tell Spring Not to Come This Year (2015) | United Kingdom | Director: Michael McEvoy, Saeed Taji Farouky | Language: Dari
BEST SHORT FILM
Caregivers (2014) | Armenia | Director: Viktorya Aleksanyan | Writer: Beniamin Gevorgyan | Language: Armenian
Hazel & Louis: Animal Agents (2014) | U.S.A. | Director: Sy Ozcan, Marissa Madsen | Writer: Sy Ozcan, Marissa Madsen | Language: English
Straw Dolls (2015) | U.S.A. | Director: Jon Milano | Writer: Jon Milano | Language: Armenian
The Jungle (2015) | Turkey | Director: Onur Saylak, Dogu Akal | Writer: Onur Saylak, Dogu Akal | Language: Arabic
The Loyalist (2015) | South Korea, USA | Director: Minji Kang | Writer: Willem Lee | Language: Korean
The Sandwich Island Man (2015) | France | Director: Levon Minasian | Writer: Levon Minasian, Ester Mann | Language: French
The Story of Snow (2015) | South Korea | Director: Younsik Kim | Writer: Younsik Kim | Language: Korean
While They Were Flying to the Moon (2015) | Serbia | Director: Borisa Simovic | Writer: Borisa Simovic | Language: Serbian
BEST DIRECTOR
Ela Alyamac, Aren Perdeci (Lost Birds)
Predrag Stojic (Off)
Isa Qosja (Three Windows and a Hanging)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Ela Alyamac, Aren Perdeci (Lost Birds)
Marko Krstic (Off)
Zymber Kelmendi (Three Windows and a Hanging)
Written by Sharon Swainson
Communications & Content Development
2015 Arpa International Film Festival