The Parajanov-Vartanov Institute studies, preserves and promotes the artistic legacies of the late persecuted filmmakers and "brothers-in-arts" Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990)
and Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009), who were admired by some of the most important
figures in cinema, literature and art.
Parajanov created such masterpieces as
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964) and Color of Pomegranates (1968), which are widely regarded as some of the greatest
motion pictures of all time, and were praised by Fellini, Antonioni, Godard and Tarkovsky for the unique cinematic language.
Vartanov developed a method termed the 'direction of undirected action'
and his work as a documentarian, cinematographer, and essayist became revered with such timeless films as The Color of Land (1969), Seasons (1975),
The Last Spring (1992), and The Unmailed Letters essays.
Probably, besides the film language suggested by Griffith and Eisenstein...cinema has not discovered anything revolutionarily new
until (Parajanov's) Color of Pomegranates...
Vartanov...brother-in-arts... you posses everthing an artist needs - mind, kindness, principles, freedom...Create... perhaps you're the only friend who
compels me to live...
2013 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award honored the Oscar-winner William Saroyan (1908-1981) and was presented
to his granddauther Cream Saroyan by Oscar-winner Jon Voight at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. William Saroyan -- one
of the 20th century's greatest authors -- won the Pulitzer Prize for the Time of Your Life (1939) and scripted the MGM classic
The Human Comedy (1943). The event was at the Four Seasons Hotel, May 12, 2013.
Beverly Hills Film Festival
William Saroyan
The first ever Parajanov and Vartanov film retrospective and art exhibition took place
at one of the world's greatest film festivals -- Busan International in South
Korea, Oct 4-13, 2012. After 40 years,
the banned and never before publicly screened early documentaries by Vartanov premiered alongside the masterpieces by Parajanov.
2012 Busan International Film Festival
Screen International
FIPRESCI
The 2012 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award was presented at the closing ceremony of the Beverly Hills Film Festival
to
Mardik Martin -- the legendary screenwriter on Martin Scorsese's seminal films
Mean Streets and Raging Bull starring Robert De Niro.
Mardik Martin is among the screenwriters on WGA's list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.
The event took place at the Four Seasons Hotel on Sunday, April 29, 2012.
Hollywood Reporter
Los Angeles Times
The 2011 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award honored the French film icon Jean Vigo (1905-1934) and was presented to his daughter and Paris-based film critic
Luce Vigo by Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight at Beverly Hills Film Festival's awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel on April 10, 2011.
Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese sent a letter for the occassion to the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute with
words on Vigo, Paradjanov and Vartanov, all of whom had fought against censorship and remain underrated.
"...It is fitting that the institute named in memory of Paradjanov and Mikhail Vartanov,
who made the wonderful film PARADJANOV: THE LAST SPRING, is honoring the genius of Jean Vigo
with the first Hollywood retrospective in recent years... I wish I could be there..."
Channel 1 TV Moscow
Hollywood Reporter
Svetlana S. Parajanov (Ukraine)
Svetlana M. Vartanov (Armenia)
Suren S. Parajanov (Ukraine)
Carlos Muguiro (Spain)
Mikael Hakhnazaryan (Germany)
The Parajanov-Vartanov Institute is led by Martiros Vartanov, a graduate of UCLA (University of California's renowned Theater, Film and Television department). He is the co-screenwriter of Paradjanov: The Last Spring, the co-author of The Eternal Travelers for Freedom: Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov, and the author of the
investigative report on forged Parajanov art. He served as a juror at international film festivals, curated Busan IFF's historic Parajanov and Vartanov retrospective, and also does occasional programing for the Beverly Hills Film Festival.