Actress Anoush NeVart Presents The ARPA Foundation Award to Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation

Dec. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- Universal City, California – On Sunday December 3, 2012 actress Marla Maples hosted the ARPA International Film Festival Closing Gala at the Sheraton Universal. Ms. Maples introduced award -winning actress Anoush NeVart to the podium.

“On behalf of the ARPA International film festival, I present The ARPA Foundation Award to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, a recognition to honor another organization's significant human rights work related to film. This year's recipient is the USC Shoah Foundation.  

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute made an agreement with pioneer documentarian, J. Michael Hagopian, who recorded over 400 eyewitness accounts of the Armenian Genocide, to digitize the accounts through the Shoah Foundation. His dream has been kept alive through the work this organization does.

Dr. Hagopian said, “We believe this agreement is the beginning of a long-term partnership with the world renowned USC Shoah Foundation Institute that will promote the study and prevention of future genocides. Inclusion of these filmed genocide survivor interviews- a national treasure of the Armenian people – side by side with testimonies of Holocaust survivors, in an archive that can be accessed and searched around the world, will finally help us fulfill our mission of disseminating these eye witness accounts worldwide.”  

Dr. Stephen D. Smith accepted the award. Dr. Stephen D. Smith is Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. He founded the UK Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.  

He was also the inaugural Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which runs the National Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom. In 2009, Holocaust Memorial Day included over five hundred public memorial events.

Award-winning Anoush NeVart is a film, theater and television actress. She won the Best Actress award at the Oscar-contending 2012 Tokyo Short Short Film Festival, International Category, for her portrayal of “Dahab” in HIGH CARD TRUMPS. NeVart is best known for her roles in Sex and the City 2 and Must Love Dogs. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1450799/ (http://webmail.aplus.net/hwebmail/services/go.php?url=htt...)