DOMINIQUE PINON 2016 Arpa IFF Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
DOMINIQUE PINON, Actor
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Dominique Pinon is an acclaimed French actor, born in Saumur, France in 1955. After studying at the Faculty of Arts of Poitiers, Pinon moved to Paris and enrolled at the Cours Simon, a renowned drama school. His first role, La Decouverte (1980), began his iconic career in cinema, leading him toward a path of French surrealist films and meaningful roles in French television.
Making his major mark on international audiences, Pinon’s roles in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie and Delicatessen, playing the characters of Joseph and Louison, remain his most moving, and allowed for multiple generations and a worldwide audience to fall in love with his multi-layered acts and his presentation of the characters’ many intricacies. Breaching over to American cinema with his key role in Alien: Resurrection, also directed by Jeunet, Pinon has continued to crossover to multiple genres and marketplaces throughout his career.
Pinon has acted alongside legends and fellow award winners such as Maggie Smith, Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Audrey Tatou, Gaspard Ulliel and many others, showcasing the esteemed platform his performances garner.
With over 100 film and short credits, multiple roles in French television and over 40 performances in stage theater (garnering him the Molière Award for Best Actor), Pinon’s ability to capture an audience and remain a pillar and reflection of French culture, especially to those outside of his home country with a curiosity for the romance that Paris evokes, continue to take the viewer to a new world in which Pinon plays their guide, comedic relief, representation of inner struggles and lovable oddity.[/vc_column_text]
SERJ TANKIAN 2016 Arpa IFF Career Achievement Award Recipient (Photo by Robert Sebree)
SERJ TANKIAN, Singer-Songwriter, Composer, Multi-Instrumentalist, Record Producer, Poet, and Political Activist
Career Achievement Award Recipient
Serj Tankian is a singer, poet, songwriter, artist, composer and activist. From a very young age, Serj was introduced to the melting of cultures which led him into the world of music and the arts.
Early in his career, Serj became the lead singer and songwriter of the largely successful rock band System of a Down. The band has earned four Grammy nominations and a win in 2006 for “Best Hard Rock Performance.” Since then, Serj has released five albums of his own solo material, including chart topping hard rock album “Elect The Dead,” followed by several critically acclaimed releases with the likes of the unique “Jazz-is Christ.”
The past couple of years, Tankian focuses on creating musical scores and compositions for films and video game projects. He serves as the executive music consultant for the highly anticipated film “The Promise,” where along with The Authentic Light Orchestra, his modern version of the Armenian folk song, “Sari Siroon Yar” will be heard for the first time in the film.
His other credits include full musical scores for independent films such as “1915,” “The Last Inhabitant,” plus chart topping hard rock album “Elect The Dead” followed by several critically acclaimed releases like the very unique “Jazzie-Christ,” and video game scores “Midnight Star'” and its sequel “Renegade.”
Tankian’s record label Serjical Strike Records has released several acclaimed artists Bucket Head, Fair To Midland, Death By Stereo, to name a few.
An artist of exceptional caliber, Tankian’s artwork has been exhibited in prestigious galleries locally and abroad.
As the co- founder of the non-profit organization Axis Of Justice with Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, AudioSlave) and co- host of Avis of Justice radio network, Serj Tankian continues to spread diversity, social justice, poetry, and understanding, through his music, with vigor, grace, and irrepressible spirit.[/vc_column_text]
ALBERT KODAGOLIAN 2016 Arpa IFF Breakthrough Artist Award Recipient
A graduate of the University of Southern California Film Program, Albert began his career as a producer on several independent feature films before moving into cinematography. After shooting a number of narrative projects, including a piece by director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) for the acclaimed shorts collection Ten Minutes Older featuring new films by Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch and Bernardo Bertolucci, the transition to directing presented itself when Albert wrote and directed a public service announcement for a charity endorsed by Mike Figgis and Saffron Burrows, which went on to play at major theatres.
Moving On, Albert’s first short film, has screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Creativity Film Festival in New York, Lille, Cardif, Mallorca, Greenwich Film Festivals, Britspotting in Berlin, and the Kodak/BAFTA film showcase in London.
Coming to prominence at Ridley Scott’s production company RSA in London, Albert has gradually earned a reputation for his ability to create meticulously detailed, cinematic campaigns earning awards and recognition from nearly all of the industry trades.
Somewhere Beautiful is Albert’s feature film directorial debut.[/vc_column_text]
BARED MARONIAN 2016 Arpa IFF Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award Recipient
BARED MARONIAN, Documentary Filmmaker
Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award Recipient
Bared Maronian is a four time Regional Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker with a BA in Political Science. He has worked on local, regional and national productions for public broadcasting nationwide and satellite distribution such as Direct TV and Dish Network. His latest work, Orphans of the Genocide has reached over 50.6 million households by way of television broadcasting in the States and is translated into six languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian, Romanian and soon Greek. In 2004 the film won the Audience Choice Award at the Canadian Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto and the Irvine International Film Festival in California. Orphans of the Genocide is twice nominated for Regional Emmys under the category of Best Historical Documentary.
Maronian’s current work is Women of 1915, a documentary film about the plight of the Armenian women during the genocide scheduled to screen at the annual Arpa International Film Festival in November 2016. Women of 1915, is the first documentary ever to unveil the role of the Armenian women of the era who lived through the horrors of the first Genocide of the 20th century. The documentary highlights the integral role the Armenian women played in their respective communities and the heroic, humanitarian women advocates who came to their aid from around the world, and some who even died at war-ravaged Ottoman Empire to empower the Armenian women as pillars of war-torn, post-Genocide societies. Maronian’s Women of 1915 follows his highly acclaimed documentary, Orphans of the Genocide, on the plight of the Armenian Genocide orphans, selected by the Hong Kong World International Film Festival, and nationally distributed by the National Educational Telecommunications Association to over 250 TV stations across the U.S.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]