Ari Gold has won over fifty prizes for his films, including best film at SXSW twice, the Student Oscar, and Best Director at the American Cinematheque / ARPA. His films have screened at Sundance, Karlovy-Vary, Rio, and won prizes on every continent except Antarctica. (He is working on that.) Ari’s most unusual distinctions include a High Times Magazine "Stoner of the Year" award, and a Guinness World Record for commanding the largest air-drum ensemble on earth. He spent a decade touring with his band The Honey Brothers before returning to filmmaking.
His romantic drama "The Song of Sway Lake" played 52 international film festivals, winning Best Feature at over a dozen of these, and features Rory Culkin, Robert Sheehan (“Umbrella Academy”), and Mary Beth Peil. His air-drum cult comedy "Adventures of Power" ("One of the funniest films in recent years" - NY Magazine), with Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Nick Kroll, and Adrian Grenier, is currently being re-released, with monthly online "watch parties" with rock stars. Ari is in post-production on his third feature, "Helicopter,” which expands on his student-Oscar-winning short film about his mother’s death, and features legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Watch REEL.
Upcoming SLATE.
Past projects:
"A stunning film" - The Independent
"Offbeat, continually intriguing" - New York Times
"A rare joy" - Ain’t It Cool News
FEATURING
Robert Sheehan • Rory Culkin • Mary Beth Peil
Jack Falahee • Elizabeth Peña • Isabelle McNally
with the voices of
Brian Dennehy • John Grant • The Staves
Festivals and awards:
Official Selection - Los Angeles Film Festival
Winner - Best Picture, Best Female Actor (Mary Beth Peil) - Vancouver GPIFF
Official Selection - Woodstock Film Festival
Official Selection - Munich International Film Festival
Winner - Sweep: Best Film, Best Director (Ari Gold), Best Female Actor (Mary Beth Peil), Best Male Actor (Robert Sheehan), Best Music (Ethan Gold) - Association Française du Cinéma Indépendent (France)
Official Selection (by Kusturica, representing the USA) - Kustendorf Film & Music Festival
Opening Night Gala Film - Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival
Winner - Best Feature Film Director (Ari Gold) - Arpa International Film Festival at the Hollywood Egyptian
Winner - Best Feature Film - Hobnobben Film Festival
Opening Night Gala Film - Tucson Film and Music Festival
Winner - Feature Film Prize - Flat Earth Festival, Iceland
Winner - Best Original Soundtrack - Realtime International Film Festival
Winner - Special Jury Award - Montana International Film Festival
Winner - Best Director - Lake City International Film Festival (Mumbai)
Winner - Award of Excellence, Accolade Global Film Competition
Winner - Best Editing - Todd Holmes & Gabriel Wrye - Oil Valley Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award - Seneca Lake Film Festival
Winner - Best Actor (Robert Sheehan) - Laughlin International Film Festival
Opening Night Gala Film - Destiny City Film Festival
Winner - Carroll Raver Cinematography Award - Garden State Film Festival
Winner - Executive Director Award - Beloit Film Festival
Winner - Best Fiction Feature - Arthouse Asia Film Festival
Winner - Audience Spotlight - Idyllwild International Film Festival
Winner - Best Original Score & Best Light Design - Enginuity Film Festival
Official Selection - Sidewalk Film Festival, Ischia FIlm Festival (Italy), Norwegian International Film Festival Film Festival Haugesund, Twin Cities Film Festival, Lake Placid Film Festival, Paralel (Serbia), Lublin Film Festival (Poland), Chandler Film Festival, Live at Heart Festival, Sweden, Sonoma Film Festival, Weyauwega International Film Festival, Adirondack Film Festival, Asheville Connect Beyond the Page Festival, Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, Niagara Falls International Film Festival, Roswell Film Festival, Mystic Film Festival, Jukebox International Film Festival, Prescott Film Festival, Global Film Festival (India), Vero Beach & Wine Festival, Vermont International Film Festival, Niagara Falls Film Festival, Covellite Film Festival, plus special selection at touring festival at Cultural Centers throughout Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Estonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Romania.
“Spinal Tap-caliber! Imaginative sight gags and laugh lines are timed like a Neil Peart solo, but the film also inexplicably succeeds as a melodrama and a heartfelt pro-labor statement. The wonderful cast includes the sublime Jane Lynch and a raft of people we should have heard of already.” - Time Out
“Totally awesome. An enthusiastic Drums Up.” - Los Angeles Times
“One of the funniest films in recent years.” - New York Magazine
FEATURING
Ari Gold
Adrian Grenier
Nick Kroll
Jane Lynch
Chiu Chi Ling
Michael McKean
Shoshannah Stern
Steven Williams
Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival
Official Selection - Karlovy-Vary Film Festival
Grand Prize - San Antonio Film Festival
Grand Prize - Trimedia Colorado Film Festival
Grand Prize - Fort Collins Trimedia Film Festival
Grand Prize - Memphis Indie Film Festival
Audience Award - Vail Film Festival
and many others
[Short film now in post-production as a full-length movie featuring Alejandro Jodorowsky]
"Writer-director Ari Gold's HELICOPTER recounts in impressionistic detail the aftermath of his mother's death in the helicopter crash that also killed her boyfriend, rock promoter Bill Graham. The film has been making an uncommon stir at festivals everywhere, and with good reason--it's an effulgent burst of heartbreak. Employing a narrative pastiche that includes acted vignettes, a black-and-white animated re-creation of the crash itself, poignant answering-machine voice-over and personal photos, Gold deftly conveys the fractured nature of loss: how memory, despair, indignation and even elation surge and recede in the mourning mind." - LA Weekly Pick of the Week
"Hypnotic, beautiful, totally brave. The year's best short film." - Film Threat
GOLD MEDAL WINNER — Student Academy Awards
GRAND PRIX — Aix-en-Provence Short Film Festival
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT — Belo Horizonte
BEST SHORT FILM — South-by-Southwest Film Fest
BEST SHORT (EXPERIMENTAL) — USA Film Festival
BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR & NEW YORK MAGAZINE AUDIENCE AWARD — First Run Film Festival
2nd PRIZE — "Best Of" Festival (a competition between 65 worldwide Grand Prize winners)
BEST SHORT — Woodstock Film Festival
JURY AWARD — Reykjavik Short Film Festival
SPECIAL JURY AWARD — New Orleans Film Festival
SPECIAL JURY AWARD — Moab Film Festival
BEST SHORT — Valley Film Festival
“This film is only one minute long. Yet, what is said in those precious 60 seconds could fill a series of books about film and pop culture. Written, directed by and starring Ari Gold, 'Culture' is one part performance piece and another part essay on movie violence and moviegoer's thirst for blood -- or it may just be enjoyed for what it is, an actor flexing every muscle in his highly trained body. It will take you longer to read this review than to see the film, but it may be seen over and over again and examined and argued about as to its meaning. 'Culture' is 60 seconds of pure cinematic brilliance.”. - Film Threat
OFFICIAL SELECTION - SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
WINNER - BEST NARRATIVE SHORT - South - By- Southwest FF
POPULAR JURY AWARD Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival
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FUTURE WORK: SLATE