For the vision to see the truth… and the courage to speak it.
In 2003, through the efforts of the Armin T. Wegner Society of USA, the Armin T. Wegner Award was created by the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art as a humanitarian honor, awarded at the discretion of the executive committee to a motion picture that contributes to the fight for social conscience and human rights, a struggle to which Armin T. Wegner devoted his life.
Recipients
Terry George – 2017
Academy Award-winning screenwriter-director Terry George was bestowed with the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award a t t h e 20th Arpa International Film Festival for the feature film The Promise on November 5, 2017. The award ceremony took place at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. Terry George was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1981 he moved to New York City. He has received numerous awards and nominations worldwide and is best known for his films “Hotel Rwanda” and “In the Name of the Father.” He earned BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay on both films. He won the Academy Award for Best Short Film, The Shore, sharing the honor with his daughter Oorlagh. The Promise (USA, 134min, 2016) starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale, is a love triangle set during the onset of the Armenian Genocide in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Click here for the Trailer
Bared Maronian – 2016
Four time Regional Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker Bared Maronian was bestowed with the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 19th Arpa International Film Festival on November 6, 2016, for his documentary film Women of 1915. The film is about the plight of the Armenian women during the Genocide. It 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.
Ela Alyamak & Aren Perdeçi – 2015
Both filmmakers were born in Istanbul, Turkey, however Aren Perdeçi is a descendant of the Ottoman Armenians. They received the Armen T. Wegner Humanitarian Award for their feature film Lost Birds at the 18th Annual Arpa International Film Festival in Hollywood on November 13, 2015. Ela and Aren devoted five years to creating Lost Birds, an Anatolian fairytale with themes of family and love amid 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Lusine Sahakyan – 2012
Lusine Sahakyan is a professor of Turkic Studies at Yerevan State University in Armenia. Author of three books Dr. Sahakyan spent two years making “Hamshen at Crossroads of Past and Present”, a film dedicated to the current state of the descendants of the Armenians of Hamshen, a people who were forcibly Islamicized (”Turkified”) by the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. The film explores the practice of forced Islamization, as a form of ethnic cleansing. Lusine received the prestigious Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 15th Annual Arpa International Film Festival on December 2, 2012.
Bryan Single – 2011
Director/producer Bryan Single filmed “Children of War” in the war-zone of northern Uganda. The documentary follows a group of former child soldiers as they escape the battlefield, enter a rehabilitation center, and undergo a process of trauma therapy. “Children of War” was world premiered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Bryan received the prestigious Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 14th Annual Arpa International Film Festival in Hollywood on September 24, 2011.
Eric Friedler – 2010
Award winning TV journalist, Eric Friedler (Germany) produced and directed Aghet: A Genocide, which debuted on German national television NDR (Norddeutsche Rundfunk), depicting the annihilation of Armenians and its systematic denial of the Turkish Government. Eric Friedler received the Armin T. Wegner Award at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on September 24, 2010.
Lucy Martens & Marjorie Wright – 2009
Director-producer Lucy Martens (Germany) and producer Marjorie Wright (USA) produced a documentary based on 16 Jewish Israeli voices of consciousness, each representing a different facet of the Israeli peace movement. Lucy and Marjorie received the Armin T. Wegner Award at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on October 25, 2009.
Theodore Braun – 2008
An Assistant Professor in screenwriting at the University of Southern California, Ted Braun spent five months in Sudan filming Darfur Now, while the world remained indifferent to charges of genocide in Darfur The National Board of Reviews named the multiple award winning Darfur Now one of the top five documentaries of 2007. Ted Braun received the Armin T. Wegner Award at the Egyptian Theatre on October 26, 2008.
Carla Garapedian – 2007
The only American ever to anchor the BBC World News, Carla Garapedian earned her Ph.D. in international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science before working as a producer, director and correspondent based in Britain. On November 4, 2007, she received the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award for her documentary film “Screamers”, a hard hitting film about genocides in general. The documentary features the music and live concert footage of the multi-platinum, heavy-metal rock band “System of a Down”.
J. Michael Hagopian – 2006
Professor of political science and economics and later producer of documentary films, Dr. Hagopian received the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award in the Arpa International Film Festival, on October 27 for the documentary series “The Witness”, a trilogy about the history of persecution of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923.
Joanelle Romero – 2005
Lyricist, actress, producer and an activist for American Indian affairs, Ms. Romero received the prestigious “Armin T. Wegner Award” at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on October 7, 2005 for her documentary film “American Holocaust: When It’s All Over I’ll Still Be Indian”, which reveals the link between Hitler’s treatment of European Jews and the U.S. Government’s behavior toward American Indians.
James Miller & Fergal Keane – 2004
Two BBC video-journalists, jointly received the Armin T. Wegner Award for their documentary film “Armenia: The Betrayed”. Unfortunately, James Miller had been killed in Gaza during making his last film on Palestinian people on May 2, 2003. His wife Sophy Miller accepted the trophy on October 10, 2004.
Carlo Massa – 2003
On October 12, 2003, the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art presented the inaugural Armin T. Wegner Award at the 2003 Arpa International Film Festival to Carlo Massa for his documentary film “Destination Nowhere: The Witness”, a chronicle of Armin T. Wegner’s historic work documenting the Armenian Genocide.