Iran’s ‘Smile of the Mask’ to go to Cinequest Film Festival

Iranian short flick ‘Smile of the Mask’ by actor/ director Abbas Ghazali has been picked for the official selection of the 31st Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival (CQFF) in the US.

‘Smile of the Mask’, which deals with the issue of acid attacks, will vie at the short film competition section of the 2022 Cinequest festival which is an Academy Award qualifying film festival.

“This was not my dream,” a tagline of the short reads.

Smile of the Mask’ was previously screened at the 12th New Filmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) festival in the US and the 6th Bremen Film Festival in Germany.

It also went on screen at the 2021 South America Awards (SAA) Festival where it received three awards, including the Best Experimental Film, the Best Actress Experimental Film and the Best Cinematography Experimental Film.

Participating in the 2021 Brazil International Monthly Film Festival also brought Ghazali the Best Experimental Film Award.

Ghazali’s third short film is also the winner of the Best Experimental award at the “5:01-10:00 Minutes” category of the spring edition of the Couch Film Festival (CouchFF) in Canada.

Born in 1985, Ghazali began his acting career with theater and became a household name by appearing in the series ‘Code White’ (2008-2011).

Among the movies in which he has taken part are ‘Confessions of My Dangerous Mind’ (2014) and ‘Persuasion’ (2015).

He has also appeared in a number of series, including ‘A Time of Frenzy’, ‘The Redemption’, ‘Course of Events’, ‘Hanieh’ and ‘Like a Mother’.

The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California.

The upcoming edition of the American festival will be held on April 1 – 17, 2022 in California.

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