Paramount’s Chris Aronson to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Southern California children’s charity Variety has selected Hollywood Studios’ distribution executive Chris Aronson to receive the organization’s first Career Achievement Award. The honor recognizes his work supporting and advocating for children, youth, adults and families in need.

Aronson is currently president of domestic distribution for Paramount Pictures. He worked for a long time at 20th Century Fox before the company was acquired by Disney in 2019.

After starting his career in film exhibition, he decided to head to Hollywood. He worked at MGM and also started the film division of Rentrak, which provided comprehensive box office data collection, analysis and reporting for the film industry (Rentrak eventually became Comscore).

“Chris is an admired and highly regarded member of the film industry whose steadfast leadership, dedication to the industry, community service and commitment to philanthropy are unmatched. We are honored to recognize Chris for all he does to give back to others,” said Steve Bunnell, president of Variety the Children’s Charity. (The charity has no affiliation with Variety commercial publication).

At Paramount, Aronson oversees distribution and theatrical sales in the United States and Canada.

“Chris is synonymous with entertainment and goodwill, recognized across the country and around the world for his passion and dedication to the film community and his unwavering dedication to nonprofit organizations, serving in key leadership positions for decades,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO of Paper Airplane Media and President of Variety the Children’s Charity.

Aronson is the former chairman of the Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneer Foundation, the Lollipop Theater and a key member of Variety’s President’s Council.