San Francisco gala announces winners

The 15th edition of the Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco (IFF) in the US has announced the winners.

Directed by Behrang Dezfoulizadeh, ‘Soundless’ received top honors, including the best film award and the award for best director

Hanieh Tavassoli won the best actress and the award for best cinematographer went to Mohammad-Reza Jahanpanah, both for ‘Soundless’.

Written by Mohammad-Reza Rahgozar, ‘Soundless’ tells the story of a woman who is deciding between emotion and logic. It is about a mother, hard of hearing, who has separated from her deaf husband because of their disagreement over their son’s cochlear implant surgery that can enable the little boy to hear. But the father, afraid of being alone, tries to prevent the surgery because he wants his son to remain deaf like him.

The IFF award for best actor was presented to Mohsen Tanabandeh for his role in ‘3 Puffs’ by Saman Salour, Masoud Farjam won the award for best screenplay for ‘Azar 7:00 AM’, and ‘Harman’ (Heh Raman) was chosen as best documentary.

In the short film competition, the awards for best film, best director and best screenwriter were presented to ‘The Book’ by Farzad Foroughi.

Hamidreza Karami received the best actor award for ‘Daily Massacre in Tehran’, while Nika Shahbazzadeh was crowned as the best actress for ‘The Untouchable’.

The awards for best cinematographer (Vahid Ebrahim) and best children’s short film went to for ‘Daily Massacre in Tehran’ by Hesam Hamidi.

‘Wolf Cubs of the Apple Valley’ by Fereydoun Najafi won the award for best children’s film, ‘The Past’ by Hamid Mohammadi was named best animated film, and ‘Just a Walk’ by Masoud Moeen-Eslam was honored as best experimental film.

Launched in 2008, the IFF is an annual event showcasing independent features and short films made by or about Iranians from around the world.

It is the first independent Iranian film festival outside Iran, with no affiliation to any political or religious organizations.

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

It was established to support the Iranian film and culture in the Iranian-American community of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

The 2022 edition of the IFF was held on September 17-18.

MG/MG