When Arnold finished school in the 1970s he really wanted to be a cinematographer, but that didn’t eventuate. Instead, he wrote computer software for a living and eventually established his own software engineering business.
Starting in his mid-teens, Arnold cultivated keen technical and artistic interests in cinematography and editing, so when he sold his software business in 2008 he decided to finally become a film maker.
As well as creating his own observational ethnographic and travel documentaries, Arnold was a founder and the President of the Eumundi World Cinema film society. He was also a founder, the principal organiser and the Festival Curator for the Noosa International Film Festival (NIFF) in 2016 and 2017, and the festival's Technical Consultant in 2018. Arnold is a member of the Noosa Film Society and a past-President of the Noosa Photographic Society.
In 2016, Arnold received a Queensland Day Medal for his work organising the inaugural Noosa International Film Festival (NIFF).
Arnold received an international award for cinematography for his film "The Maasai Mara from above" and his films have been televised in Shanghai, in Charlotte North Carolina and in San Francisco.
In May 2022 his film "By longboat to Samkar" received an award at the Global Shorts Film Festival in Los Angeles and in June 2022 it received the award for Best Ethnographic Documentary at the 8andHalf Film Festival in Rome.
In July 2022 "By longboat to Samkar" received the award for Best Documentary Short at the Stanley Film Awards in London. The film also received an Honourable Mention at the Florence Film Awards and was an Official Selection at the New York Movie Awards. In August 2022 "By longboat to Samkar" received an Honourable Mention at the Hollywood Gold Awards.
In September 2022 "By longboat to Samkar" was a semi-finalist at the Dumbo Film Festival in New York. It also received an Honourable Mention at the Paris Film Awards and was a Semi-Finalist at the Serbest International Film Festival in Moldova. In October 2022 it was an Official Selection at the Finisterra Arrábida Film Art & Tourism Festival in Portugal. In November 2022 "By longboat to Samkar" was an Official Selection at the Zagreb International Film Festival in Croatia.
Also in November 2022 “By longboat to Samkar” received the award for Best Short Documentary at the FilmHaus International Film Festival in Berlin. The film was also a finalist in three documentary-related award categories: Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Cinematography and Best Documentary Editing.
In December 2022 "By longboat to Samkar" received an Honourable Mention at the Zagreb International Film Festival in Croatia.
In August 2022 his film "Three sketches from Vietnam" received the award for Best Short Documentary at the Florence Film Awards. In September 2022 it received an Honourable Mention at the London Movie Awards, an Honourable Mention at the Paris Film Awards and was an Official Selection at the Finisterra Arrábida Film Art & Tourism Festival in Portugal.