Journalist Editor Photographer
Journalist, Editor, Photogrpher
Bio in Brief
Janet Forman Bio in Brief
A journalist and film producer, winner of more than sixty writing and photography awards, including two Lowell Thomas Gold Medals and a Silver, the 2014 Bill Muster Gold Medal for Best Cultural Photo, the 2011 Bill Muster Photo Gold Medal for her Single Subject Portfolio on Abu Dhabi and was named Pacific Asia Travel Association Journalist of the Year 2000. In 2021, she received a SOLAS award. She has received additional awards from SOLAS, NATJA, the governments of Belgium and South Africa and numerous SATW Eastern Chapter First Place awards Forman holds an M.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and writes from the brownstone she renovated in Harlem, New York. Member of: SATW, NY Women in Film, IATSE Local 52 - Motion Pictures Studio Mechanics, Mensa, ASJA, NATJA janetforman.com (Clips and social media on request.)
2018 November Bahia, Brazil
Janet Forman Biography
Janet Forman Biography
Winner of more than sixty writing and photography awards including two gold and one silver Lowell Thomas Gold Medals, the 2011 Bill Muster Photo Portfolio Gold Medal, named Premier Traveler magazine’s Most Compelling Woman in Travel 2015, and Pacific Asia Travel Association Journalist of the Year 2000.
Writing about travel ever since she hitchhiked across Europe as a college student, Janet Forman has circled the globe many times covering odd cultural corners from Vietnam, Burma and Borneo, to Eastern Europe, South Africa and Arabia.
Food and beverage, as well as architecture and design are her specialties for publications that include BBC.COM, National Geographic Traveler, Wine Enthusiast, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, Prestige Magazine, and The Globe and Mail
Member of: SATW, NY Women in Film, IATSE Local 52 - Motion Picture Studio Mechanics, Mensa, ASJA, NATJA
Selected Awards
- 2019 First Place, Best Newspaper Article, SATW Eastern Chapter Writing contest What to do During Sweden’s Magical Summer Interlude, Globe and Mail
· 2021 SOLAS Bronze Back Stairs to the Billionaire’s Belt at Oil Nut Bay, Virgin Gorda BVI
· 2017 First Place SATW Eastern Chapter Writing Award Best Magazine article for It’s All Happening in Helsinki
· 2016 Gold Award North American Travel Journalism Association Travel Media Awards Competition, Travel Series - Print Publication Boeing Trailblazers
· 2016 Gold Award North American Travel Journalism Association Travel Media Awards Competition, Historical Travel - Print Publication Boeing Trailblazers
· 2019 Sweden's Magical Summer Interlude, Globe and Mail NATJA Travel Media Awards 2018 Lifestyle, Personality and Profiles - Print Publication category Honorable Mention
· 2019 Beyond the bucket list: Scared Valley Peru, HipSilver NATJA Travel Media Awards 2018 Health and Wellness Travel - Online Publication category Honorable Mention
- 2016 First Place History category SATW Eastern Chapter The Women of Boeing in Premier Traveler
- 2016 First Place More Than One Destination SATW Eastern Chapter Hands On Vacation in Premier Traveler
- 2016 Second Place Misc. Category SATW Eastern Chapter Hands On Vacation in Premier Traveler
- 2016 Silver NATJA Byline Column for Editor’s Letter Premier Traveler
- 2015 Named one of Premier Traveler magazine’s Most Compelling Women in Travel
- First Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2015 Romance “Editor’s Letter” November/December 2014 Premier Traveler
- GOLD MEDAL 2014 Bill Muster Photo Competition Best Cultural Photo. Naples
- GOLD MEDAL 2011 Bill Muster Photo Competition Single Subject Portfolio Abu Dhabi and Oman
- Second Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2015 Food Category “Food for Flight” Premier Traveler
- First Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2014 Best Magazine Article Foreign Travel “The World’s A Stage” Premier Traveler
- First Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2014 Best In Depth Coverage on a Travel Related Theme “Series on Women in Travel” Premier Traveler
- Second Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2014 The Business of Travel Travel “Meet in the Cloud Forest” Premier Traveler
- Second Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2014 Photography Action “Shark Tank” Premier Traveler
- First Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2013 Best Magazine Article US Travel “Buddy Up” Premier Traveler
- First Place SATW Eastern Chapter 2013 Best Magazine Article Foreign Travel Travel “Hidden Corners of Qatar” Premier Traveler
- GOLD MEDAL, Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award, 1997, BEST CULTURAL TOURISM ARTICLE, Cartoon Fever in Belgium, Diversion magazine.
- LOWELL THOMAS GOLD MEDAL 1996 Best Film Postcard From Vietnam
- P.A.T.A JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR 2000 for her body of work on Asia.
- · 2013 SATW Eastern Chapter Writing Award: Best magazine article U.S. Travel “Buddy Up” Premier Traveler
- 2013 SATW Eastern Chapter Writing Award: Best magazine article Foreign Travel “The Hidden Corners of Qatar” Premier Traveler
- SILVER MEDAL, Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award 2008, Best Newspaper story on US/Canada Travel, “Oh, Men and Their Spas” Globe and Mail.
- SOLAS AWARD 2010 Honorable Mention “Global Giving” Business Traveler, “This Old House” Globe and Mail
- SOLAS AWARD 2009 BRONZE Travel & Food “Asia’s Back Street Food”
- SOLAS AWARD 2007 SILVER Travel & Shopping “Harlem Couture”
- SOLAS AWARD 2007 BRONZE Sports “The Cresta Run”
- SOLAS AWARDS 2007 HONORABLE MENTIONS “Myanmar Days” and “Hanoi Cooking: Didier Corlou’s Gallic Wand.”
- Bill Muster Photo Award 2005 Natural Scenics, Halong Bay, Vietnam
- LOWELL THOMAS AWARD 2004, CULTURAL TOURISM Honorable Mention for “Juke Joint Jumpin’” Discovery Magazine
- LOWELL THOMAS AWARD, 2002, CULTURAL TOURISM Honorable Mention for Harlem, The Oregonian.
- BEST NEWSPAPER STORY OF THE YEAR 2002, Belgian Tourist Office, Behind Abbey Walls, The Sunday Record.
- GRAND PRIZE, North American Travel Journalists Association Competition 1998, Raise a Glass to Belgium’s Breweries, Blue Wings - Finnair in-flight.
- SOLAS AWARDS 2008 “Catskills Cooking” “Los Feliz and Silver Lake” Honorable Mention
- 11 FIRST PRIZES in the North American Travel Journalists Association Competition, 1995 - 99 for: Positively Penang, Going Places - Malaysia Airlines in-flight; Palau: Familiar Exotic, The World and I; Williamsburg, Brooklyn Under the Radar, The Sunday Record; Global Hooky: Hong Kong, New York; Los Angeles, Report on Business Magazine; New York’s Bohemian Trail, The Globe and Mail; Let Them See You Sweat, Report on Business Magazine; The Stockholm Archipelago, Copley News Service; Next Stop: Squaresville, The Globe and Mail; Where Philosophy’s an Honored Guest, The Globe and Mail; Cartoon Fever in Belgium, Diversion; and the film, POST CARD From Vietnam.
- HONORABLE MENTION, National Magazine Award (Canada), 1999, A Spy Checks In, Report on Business Magazine.
- SECOND PRIZE international journalism competition sponsored by South African Tourist Board and South African Airlines for SOUTH AFRICA, 1995.
Outlets
Magazine and newspaper outlets include: BBC.COM, National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure worldwide editions, Business Traveler, Prestige Hong Kong, Beyond (AmEx Platinum Asia) , Wine Enthusiast and The Globe and Mail. In the past she has written for Saveur, Blue Wings - Finnair In-flight, Discovery Magazine - Cathay Pacific In-flight, The Club - Cathay Pacific Marco Polo, Dynasty Magazine - China Airlines in-flight magazine, Going Places - Malaysian Airlines In-flight Magazine, The Expat – Singapore, Natural Health, Restaurant Business, The Oregonian, St. Petersburg Times and German Life.
Film
2012 Film “Hearst Castle Preservation Trust” Writer. Director: James Signorelli
Janet Forman has more than twenty years experience as a writer/producer for TV commercials and films, specializing in international production. She has been Executive Producer for Dragonslayer Films, USA, a worldwide TV commercial production company, written a film in Kenya on elephant poaching for Robert Halmi's Earth Journal TV series, produced the New York segment of the millennium project for Imagica, Tokyo, Japan and produced TV commercials such as Sumatra Rain, a men's fragrance, for Grey Advertising, Europe and the "Fete de France" and "Ecco l'Italia" fashion campaigns shot in France and Italy for Bloomingdales (Grey Advertising). She also served as a producer on Search For Solutions, a series filmed worldwide for Phillips Petroleum.
Other projects include the Lowell Thomas Gold Medal winning POST CARD From Vietnam, and an image film for hairdresser Frederic Fekkai.
Ms. Forman is the Producer/Director of the internationally distributed feature-length documentary The Beat Generation-An American Dream, seen in art houses and on television worldwide, and selected for screening at international festivals including the Berlin Film Festival, the A.F.I. film festival in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., the Sao Paulo Film Festival in Brazil, the Ghent Film Festival in Belgium, the Valladolid Festival in Spain, the Venice Film Festival and was part of the Beat Generation retrospective at New York’s Whitney Museum
Ms Forman was also a writer-trainee in the script department of STAR TREK, Paramount Pictures.
Education
Master of Fine Arts in Film from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Abu Dhabi