Discussion Panel: Women in Filmmaking 2018

A highlight from the weekend was a special Women in Filmmaking Panel Discussion on Saturday morning moderated by Pat Saperstein, Deputy Editor for Variety. Five influential and distinguished women in the film industry – Angélica Vale, Kelli McNeil, Michelle Alexandria, Micky Levy, Valerie McCaffrey discussed their journeys, successes and challenges in this ever-changing market.

2018 Festival Awards

The Arpa International Film festival (Arpa IFF) brings acclaimed local and international filmmakers and entertainment professionals, including producers, directors, writers, and agents to select the films that stand above the rest.

Please visit our 2018 Festival Photo Gallery for all day by day pictures from our festival.

Celebrity Guests throughout the weekend included Ann Cusack, James Adomian, Ken Davitian, Peter DiStefano, Sofia Milos, Vanessa Lyon, Q’orianka Kilcher, Tajh Bellow, Andre Gordon, Laure Fortier, Camille Hyde, and Tonya Crowe.

2018 Award Winners

A special Closing Night Awards Show wrapped up the three-day festival with three special honorees and a total of six winning films. Read more about it in our official 2018 Festival Highlights and Award Winners announcement.

• Best Short Animated Film Award 2018 Winner: ECHO (Serbia, 2018) by Boriša Simović

Best Short Animated Film Award went to ECHO (Serbia, 2018) by Boriša Simović, about a five-year-old boy who spends a day with his father, whom he only occasionally sees, in nature, with the game of calling Echo. After a great emotional charge that the play and the presence of his father create in him, he returns to his mother’s house, where there is no place for such outbursts of “irrational” attitude towards the world.

• Best Short Film Award 2018 Winner: TANIEL (UK, 2018) by Garo Berberian

Best Short Film Award went to TANIEL (UK, 2018) by Garo Berberian. The London-based filmmaker accepted the Award in person for his film on Armenian poet Taniel Varoujan, who lost his life at the age of 31 during the Armenian Genocide.

• Best Documentary Film Award 2018 Winner: RIVER OF GOLD (USA, 2016) by Reuben Aaronson

Best Documentary Film Award went to RIVER OF GOLD (USA, 2016) by Reuben Aaronson. Producer Sarah DuPont accepted the Award for the film which uncovers the savage destruction of Peru’s Amazon rainforest. Narrated by Academy Award winners Sissy Spacek and Herbie Hancock, RIVER OF GOLD bears witness to the apocalyptic destruction in the pursuit of illegally mined gold with consequences on a global scale.

• Best Feature Screenplay Award 2018 Winner: IN VINO (USA, 2017) by director Leonardo Foti

Sunday’s Spotlight Film, IN VINO (USA, 2017) by director Leonardo Foti, won Arpa’s Best Feature Film Screenplay Award. The film, starring Sean Young, Edward Asner, and Marina Benedict, is about a wealthy couple, who invite their closest friends and family members to dinner. Before dinner is served the husband raises the glass for a toast to his family and falls face forward on his plate dead. The wife confesses that she had poisoned him and she had poisoned everyone in the room to get the money. The guests have one choice: Kill one person among them and take the blame for both murders to get the antidote or… die in one hour. What follows is a hysterical exchange between the over stressed members of the group who, in an attempt to establish who should die and who should be the killer, reveal all the skeletons in the closet they have been hiding from each-other for years.

• Best Feature Director Award 2018 Winner: Ari Gold for THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE (USA, 2017)

Best Feature Director Award went to Ari Gold of THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE (USA, 2017), a romantic drama about the vanished grace of America, and the spells cast by the melodies of lost time. It’s summer on Sway Lake, former playground of the jazz-age New York aristocracy. A young music collector recruits his only friend, a rowdy Russian drifter, to help him steal a one-of-a-kind vintage record from his own family’s glamorous lake house. He believes that possessing the secret recording of the WW2-era hit, “Sway Lake,” will magically boost his confidence with women – and redeem his father, who committed suicide on the lake.

• Best Feature Film Award 2018 Winner: YEVA (Armenia, 2017) by director Anahid Abad

YEVA, which won Arpa’s Best Feature Film Award, is an intimate drama about a woman suspected of murder who flees to an Armenian village with her young daughter in tow. Yeva has chosen to return to the place she briefly worked as a doctor during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, hoping she won’t be recognized. With mines still dotting the hillsides, the conflict remains part of the fabric of this society and people still remember “Crazy Yeva” of the front-line hospital, though they don’t immediately connect her to the stranger in their midst. As she integrates into the rhythm of village life, Yeva’s memories of the war come flooding back, and a past tied directly to her current predicament.

Read more in our official 2018 Festival Highlights and Award Winners announcement.

2018 Special Award Honorees

Read more about the 21st annual Arpa International Film Festival 2018 Special Honorees.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 Arpa IFF

A special ceremony honoring Edward James Olmos with Arpa’s LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD followed the screening of the film. The Award was presented by Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actress Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden). Olmos, currently starring in the television series Mayans M.C., has played iconic roles both in film and television, receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Stand and Deliver (1988).

Icon Award 2018 Arpa IFF

Special honorees on Sunday night included TV legend ED ASNER who received the Arpa ICON AWARD. His role as Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, make him one of the few television actors to portray the same leading character in both a comedy and a drama. Asner is the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven.

Career Achievement Award 2018 Arpa IFF

Arpa’s CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD went to Italian actress SVEVA ALVITI whose critically acclaimed portrayal of iconic singer Dalida in last year’s biopic DALIDA by Lisa Azuelos took her career to a whole new level. DALIDA was screened on opening night at last year’s Arpa IFF to a sold-out audience. Alviti flew in from Rome for the special tribute. She has the lead female role in LUKAS starring alongside Jean Claude Van Damme, currently in theaters in Europe. Alviti was nominated for Best Female Rising Actress at the 2018 Cesar Awards.

Rising Star Award 2018 Arpa IFF

The third honoree of the evening who received Arpa’s RISING STAR AWARD was producer NATALIE QASABIAN, whose latest feature SEARCHING, starring John Cho and Debra Messing, was a huge box office success. She’s currently producing RUN for Lionsgate alongside “Searching” producer Sev Ohanian and director Aneesh Chaganty. The first short film Qasabian produced, “Join the Club” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016. From there she went on to produce three Duplass Brothers features: “Rainbow Time,” “Take Me,” and “Duck Butter” directed by Miguel Arteta. She also produced “All About Nina” starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Common, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was acquired by The Orchard.

Read more about the 21st annual Arpa International Film Festival 2018 Special Honorees.

Arpa International Film Festival Venue

November 2-4, 2018 at the Egyptian Theatre

What is more iconic than a film festival at the historic Egyptian Theater which is credited of being the location of the first ever Hollywood film premiere? Built in 1922 by legendary Hollywood developers Charles E. Toberman and Sid Grauman, they chose an Egyptian theme since King Tutakhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt that same year. Several major Hollywood films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Oklahoma!, and Funny Girl had extended engagements at the theater. United Artists was the last owner of the Egyptian before it closed in 1992, but later purchased by The American Cinematheque from the city for $1 with the provision that this historical landmark would be restored to its original grandeur and re-opened as a movie theater showcasing the organizations celebrated, public programming.

Venue Accessibility

The Egyptian Theater is located in the heart of Hollywood, one block east of Highland Ave, just between McCadden Place and Las Palmas. Parking pay lots are located behind Egyptian Theatre, with an entrance on McCadden or Las Palmas ($10-$15), and one block south of Hollywood Blvd on Selma ($5). Metered street parking is also available.

Egyptian Theatre: 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028 (Google Maps)

Arpa International Film Festival Seating Chart

We hope you’ll find our seating chart convenient. Most importantly if you Sponsor our film festival you can choose & pick your seats in advance.

2019 Festival Sponsors

We’d like to thank all of our 2019 sponsors for helping to make this the best Arpa International Film Festival ever! Without your generosity, an event like this wouldn’t even be possible

2019 Official Digital Cinema Provider

2018 Media Partners

We are proud to announce that the Arpa International Film Festival is featured on California Film Commission’s official website.