‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ wins awards at Italian fest

Iranian short film ‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ has succeeded to win an award at the 2020 online edition of the Via dei Corti Independent Short Film Festival in the Italian city of Catania.

Alireza Qasemi hss won the best director award for his acclaimed sci-fi short movie ‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ at the 6th edition of the event.

The film also won the award for best photography, which has been done by Soroush Alizadeh.

In his film, Ghasemi tells us the story of four kids who start their journey to the moon with the mission of finding a mysterious place called ‘The Redland’, but the gates of The Redland are being guarded by a mischievous snake.

‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ recently claimed the best film award at the Drama Section of the 2020 Southport International Short Film Festival in the UK.

The short film has taken part in various global film events before — the 2020 Poppy Jasper Int’l Film Festival (PJIFF) in the US, the 18th Pune Int’l Film Festival (PIFF) in India, the 10th Lakeshorts Int’l Short Film Festival in Canada, the 13th Trenton Film Festival in the US, the 20th Izmir Int’l Short Film Festival (IISFF) in Turkey and 2019 Lund Int’l Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden, to name but a few.

Qasemi’s film is also the recipient of the Best Cinematography and the Best Movie Soundtrack awards from the 15th Nahal Student Short Film Festival in Iran.

Recently, ‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ grabbed the Best Student Short Film award at the 5th edition of the Las Cruces International Film Festival (LCIFF) in the US.

On November 29, ‘Better than Neil Armstrong’ participated in the 5th Crossing The Screen Film Festival in the UK.

The Via dei Corti - Festival Indipendente di Cinema Breve is an international short film festival held in Gravina di Catania (CT), Sicily – Italy every year. The contest is open to Italian and foreign authors (foreign directors have to send their movies with italian subtitles).

The event announced the winners’ list on December 31.

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