‘Finding Farideh’ nabs award at Nostalgia Film Festival

Multiple award-winning Iranian feature film ‘Finding Farideh’ has nabbed new award at the Nostalgia Film Festival (NFF) in Italy.

The 1st edition of the first independent Iranian film festival in Italy has bestowed Best Feature Film Award to Azadeh Mousavi and Kourosh Ataee’s ‘Finding Farideh’.  

Award for Best Short Film went also to ‘Are You Volleyball?!’ by Mohammad Bakhshi.

‘Time to Change’ by Maryam Rahimi, ‘The Spinning Top’ by Shiva Momtahan and ‘Parivash’ by Ameneh Monshizadeh were also among the frontrunners of the festival.

Maryam Rahimi’s short film succeeded to grab an honorable mention while Momtahan’s animation and ‘Parivash’ jointly received the Special Jury Award of the event.

This special festival of Iranian films called for entries last summer and selected a total of 25 short films and 8 features from among some 150 short and feature films submitted to the festival’s secretariat office.

‘Finding Farideh’, which was featured in this year's Berlinale Talents sidebar, is about an Iranian girl named Farideh who was adopted by a Dutch couple around 40 years ago, and now overcomes her fears and travels to her motherland Iran for the first time to meet three families, each claiming to be her family and parents. They all take DNA tests to find out the truth, and in the process, Farideh also meets her identity and root culture.

The film was picked by a committee of Iranian film industry professionals from a field of 10 possible Oscar entries to represent Iran in International Feature Film Category of the 92nd Academy Awards.

‘Finding Farideh’ has already won multiple prizes nationally as well as an honorable mention at the Los Angeles Film Awards.

Nostalgia Film Festival (NFF), launched in 2019, is a seasonal event showcasing independent feature and short films made by Iranians from around the world.

NFF is also a platform for the Iranian filmmakers living around the globe to express their vision and talent through the artistic medium of film.

The event held closing ceremony on November 28, 2019.

Hollywood Reporter lauds Iran doc ‘Finding Farideh’

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