Honorary Membership

Honorary Membership in the Society recognizes individuals who have performed eminent service in the advancement of engineering in motion pictures, television, or in the allied arts and sciences. Such contributions shall represent, substantially, a lifetime's work inasmuch as Honorary Membership shall be the supreme accolade of the Society.

For advancing the cinematography vision of the ARRI corporation, founded in 1917. Kraus joined ARRI in 1983 and successfully led the company into the digital age by developing digital film scanners and cameras. Always keeping the camera user in mind, Kraus ensured that the physical interfaces and software tools were simple for cinematographers. This resulted in the ARRI ALEXA camera suite becoming one of the most popular products in the entertainment industry today.

Prof. Franz Kraus joined ARRI in 1983 as Technical Director for a newly started Postproduction facility. Numerous technical and management positions followed. In 1996 he took over the responsibility for R&D, comprising of Camera-, DI- and Lighting- Businesses. From 2001 until his retirement in 2018 he became Member of the Executive Board of the then found ARRI AG with the responsibilities for Technology and ww Services. Under his leadership, ARRI received nine awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for outstanding technical achievements, including the development of the ARRILASER film recorder system and the ALEXA digital camera system. In 2012, Franz Kraus was personally honored with an Academy Award of Merit, an Oscar statuette. In 2004, he was appointed Honorary Professor and Head of the Technology Department at the University of Television and Film (HFF) in Munich. Meanwhile, he became Head of the Camera Department. In addition, Franz Kraus was appointed curator at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (ISS) and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). He is also member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (A.M.P.A.S.), member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and Member of the German Society of Cinematographers (BVK). Before joining ARRI, Franz Kraus was for seven years with the Heinrich Hertz Research Institute (HHI) in Berlin working on storage- and telecom solutions for interactive audio-visual communication. He continued his work as visiting scientist at Bell Lab´s in Holmdel, US. After receiving his engineering degree in telecommunications in Regensburg, Germany, he started his career as a design engineer at Rohde & Schwarz.