The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival Announces Additional Stunt Honorees Shauna Duggins and Mahsa Ahmadi for Its Fifth Edition

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival is excited to announce that Shauna Duggins and Mahsa Ahmadi will be among its Fifth Edition honorees. AWIAFF will recognize these women of action, who not only exhibit a powerful strength of character but who also embody a strong, physical presence onscreen. The festival is proud to honor these pioneering women as they continue to maintain an incredible standard of skill—something that has always been personified in the festival's unique mission.

Shauna Duggins will be honored with the Artemis Stunt Powerhouse Award for smashing boundaries with her work as a stunt double, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and 2nd Unit Director. Before she became the first woman to win a Primetime Emmy for Stunt Coordination and SAG Award Winner for the Netflix hit comedy "GLOW"—a show about female wrestlers—Ms. Duggins was best known for being Jennifer Garner's personal stunt double. With a background in gymnastics and martial arts, Duggins moves easily between doubling and stunt coordination, and has an impressive 136 stunt credits. She has doubled for Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Jordana Brewster, Charlize Theron, and more. As a stunt coordinator she has worked on "Ray Donova," "Counterpart," "Kidding," "Camping," "Alias," "Fringe," "Brothers & Sisters" . . . just to name a few.  Jennifer Garner perfectly encapsulates her skills: " . . . Shauna Duggins is a leader as a woman . . . and as a [stunt] coordinator."

Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Mahsa Ahmadi with the Artemis Stunt Unsung Heroine Award for her trailblazing career as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator. Ms. Ahmadi has been instrumental in making women's roles in Iranian films more dynamic. Her remarkable stunt skills include skydiving, base jumping, horse falls, martial arts, weapons, wire work, and stunt driving. She is responsible for many firsts. She was the first female stuntwoman, the first female skydiver, and the first female base jumper in Iran. At 16, she began training as a stuntwoman with Iran's Stunt 13 group, facing many challenges including wearing a hijab and loose clothing all while performing stunts. Ms. Ahmadi successfully convinced the authorities to give her (a woman) the permits to work on stunts. A true pioneer, she has amassed 55 IMDB stunt credits since her career took off in 2010. The stunt that brought her international attention involved a car flying 20 feet into the air over a truck; it went viral and led to her working on "Skyfall" in 2012. Her U.S. credits include "Fear the Walking Dead," "S.W.A.T.," "Will & Grace," "9-1-1," "Seal Team," "Last Ship," "Z Nation," "Tomb Invader," and "Saint Judy."

"Wow! My mom is gonna be so proud. She's [the one] who taught me how to 'kick ass.' Thank you Artemis!" —Mahsa Ahmadi

The Fifth Edition will also be marked by recognizing Jeannie Epper with the Artemis Stunt Lifetime Achievement Award, Melissa R. Stubbs with the Artemis Stunt Icon Award and Lisa Hoyle with the Artemis Stunt Warrior Award. Past Artemis honorees include Melissa McCarthy, Michelle Rodriguez, Tom Cruise, Ming-Na Wen, Zoë Bell, Debbie Evans, Heidi Moneymaker, Jessie Graff, and many others. For sponsorship opportunities, visit Artemisfilmfestival.com/sponsors for more information.

The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival (AWIAFF) is happy to announce that Entertainment Partners (Movie Magic) and InkTip have joined as festival prize sponsors. AWIAFF is proudly presenting Movie Magic software bundles to two award-winning feature films and giving InkTip memberships to the top five finalists in the screenplay competition. Artemis will be giving approximately 7K in prizes to official selections at their 2019 Edition.

ABOUT Artemis Women In Action Film Festival:
Artemis Women In Action Film Festival was founded by Melanie Wise and Zac Baldwin, two filmmakers with a long time love of female-driven action films. Wise and Baldwin have produced shorts and features, focusing on female action projects. They saw that the genre was loved by audiences around the world, despite the fact that studios for many years claimed female action films were box office poison. In 2014, the idea of Artemis was born with the intent to create a space where these types of films could play for audiences with an unsatisfied hunger of female-driven action films. And for the Fifth Edition, Artemis is proud to include female-powered music.

About Entertainment Partners: EP is the global leader in entertainment payroll, workforce management, residuals, tax incentives, finance, and other integrated production management solutions with 15 offices in the U.S., Canada, London, and Tokyo. Currently on a mission to digitize the paper-heavy back office processes of entertainment production, EP is striving to reinvent how the entertainment industry works and interacts to make production simpler. EP collaborates with its clients to help them produce the most cost-effective and efficient film, television, digital, and commercial projects. Its accounting systems and Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling programs are the industry standards. EP's Financial Solutions group, along with Canada Film Capital (CFC) are the industry's most experienced incentives teams, assisting productions all over the world. In addition, casting and payroll for background actors is handled through its legendary Central Casting division, a Hollywood icon since 1925. Established over 40 years ago, EP is a 100% employee-owned company.

About InkTip: InkTip was born in 2000 and pioneered an online destination to help producers easily find good scripts, agents and managers more efficiently locate the right people for their clients' scripts, and greatly increase exposure for screenwriters.

SOURCE Artemis Motion Pictures

Related Links

http://www.artemisfilmfestival.co