Armyan Bernstein - Details

Biography

ARMYAN BERNSTEIN is the chairman of Beacon Communications; one of the industry’s most successful independently financed film companies, and was awarded the Showest Producer of the Year Award in 1999.

Beacon Communications is known for award-winning films such as The Commitments, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Picture in 1991 and went on to win four BAFTA awards; A Thousand Acres, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange; Playing God, starring David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton; Keith Gordon’s critical triumph, A Midnight Clear, starring Ethan Hawke; and David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, which won a Cable ACE Award for Best Dramatic or Theatrical Special.

Bernstein was born and raised in Chicago. He went to college at the University of Wisconsin, and was a journalist with PBS and later ABC. He wrote the 1970’s cult classic Thank God It’s Friday, starring Debra Winger and Jeff Goldblum.
He then went on to write and co-produce Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary Vegas romance One From the Heart. Bernstein made his directing debut with Windy City, from his screenplay, which starred John Shea and Kate Capshaw. He also wrote and directed Cross My Heart, starring Martin Short and Annette O’Toole for producer Lawrence Kasdan.

Bernstein also wrote and produced the Emmy Award-winning Earth Day Special for Warner Bros. and ABC.