‘Mazar-e Sharif’ tops Aussie festival

Iranian film ‘Mazar-e Sharif’ directed by Abdolhassan Barzideh has won the best film award at the Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne 2017.

The film, starring Hossein Yari and Mahtab Keramati, grabbed the award in a category dedicated to movies with a budget under $250,000, the event’s website announced recently.

‘Mazar-e Sharif’ narrates the story of the Taliban’s attack on the Iranian Consulate in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, in 1998 that resulted in the martyrdom of some Iranian diplomats.

The best film award in the student category went to Iranian director Javad Darai’s ‘I Don’t Like Her’.

Masoud Farjam, who made the trailer for Iranian director Abbas Rafei’s award-winning movie ‘Oblivion Season’, received the award for best trailer.

Rafei’s production is about Fariba, a challenged woman who starts a new life after marrying her lover, but leaving the shadow of her dark past is not as easy as it seems.

The Japanese director Yoshinari Nishikôri’s ‘Tatara Samurai’ received the award for best film in a category dedicated to movies with a budget over $250,000.

Beni Adam from Canada took home the best film award at no-budget under $25,000 category for his film ‘Prahala’.

The Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne is interested not just in films with potential commercial success but films of artistic merit and scope.

It is aimed at building a festival that will be on par with Sundance, Cannes, and other major festivals but geared to the truly independent filmmaker, actor, and scriptwriter, giving them opportunities and opening doors that would not otherwise be open to them.

MG/AI