Three short and feature-length Iranian productions have scooped awards at international film festivals in Spain and China.
Spain’s third Granada Cines del Sur Festival granted its Alhambra De Plata prize for best director of a feature-length film, to Behnam Behzadi for Before the Burial, which also won the event’s Netpac Award with Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage’s Flowers of the Sky.
The festival’s Alhambra De Oro prize for best feature-length film went to The Other Bank by Georgian filmmaker George Ovashvili.
Ramtin Lavvafipour’s Calm Down and Count to Seven won the Jury Prix award of the Asian New Talent section of the 2009 Shanghai International Film Festival.
Lavvafipour’s production was awarded for “its spirit of innovation” and exceeding “the traditional way of film-making in Iran.”
Made in the style of documentary realism and with dynamic camera work, Calm Down and Count to Seven has won the Ecumenical Award of the Fribourg international festival and the VPRO Tiger Award of the Netherlands’ International Film Festival for its level of craftsmanship and cinematic intelligence.
Mehdi Jafari’s Window also received the Garcia Francisco award of the International Short Film Competition section of Spain’s 37th Huesca International Film Festival.
Jafari has made several short films, including Pilgrimage, A Little Bit Higher and All Good Days
Filed under: Middle East
