Parajanov-Vartanov Institute to Fete the Spouses of the Late Influential Filmmakers Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) and Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009), And Salute the Work of BHFF Founder Nino Simon

To recognize the underappreciated role women play in the life of artists, the first annual Parajanov-Vartanov Awards will be presented to the spouses of the late influential filmmakers Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) and Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009). For his devotion to promote the arts of Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov, and the commitment to the independent and underrated cinema, the founder of the Beverly Hills Film Festival, Nino Simon, will also be honored with the Parajanov-Vartanov Award. The awards will be handed out by the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute at the gala awards ceremony of the 10th Annual Beverly Hills Film Festival to be held at 6pm on April 18, 2010 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The awards ceremony will be preceded at 3pm by a rare showing of Vartanov’s “Parajanov: The Last Spring” at UCLA in the James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, located at 235 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) is widely regarded as one of the greatest masters of cinema and has been called a genius, a master and a magician by legends like Fellini, Antonioni, Godard, and Tarkovsky. Paradjanov’s  masterpieces, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964), and Sayat Nova or The Color of Pomegranates (1968), often turn up on the lists of the best motion pictures of all time.

Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009) developed a style of documentary filmmaking termed direction of undirected action and his reputation as one of the most important cinematographers, documentarians and intellectuals of his generation was cemented by such influential documentary films as The Seasons of the Year (1975), Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), and a series of essays including The Unmailed Letters.

The spouses of Parajanov and Vartanov, pedagogue Svetlana Sherbatiuk and film editor Svetlana Manucharian, have stood by their husbands in the difficult times of persecutions and unemployment and for over 30 years helped them create and preserve their creations. Nino Simon founded the Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2001 and resurrected such important forgotten films as D.W. Griffith’s “In Old California” (1910), Mikhail Vartanov’s “Parajanov: The Last Spring” (1992), and Eugenio Cappuccio’s “Towards the Moon with Fellini” (2006).

The Parajanov-Vartanov Award presentation and the UCLA screening are held in the framework of the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival and are cosponsored by Parajanov-Vartanov Institute, UCLA Armenian Studies Program, the Center for European and Eurasian Studies, the Friends of UCLA Armenian Language and Culture Studies, and the Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Parajanov-Vartanov Institute was established to promote the artistic legacy of the late influential filmmakers Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) and Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009). Beverly Hills Film Festival was founded in 2001 to showcase the independent cinema in the renowned city of Beverly Hills. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) was founded in 1919 and enrolls over 30,000 students annually from around the country and the world.


For more information, to become a sponsor, or volunteer your support, please contact Martiros Vartanov at institute@parajanov.com.