Iranian ‘Gaze’ wins Norwegian award

Iranian short ‘Gaze’ has won an award at the 30th edition of the Minimalen Short Film Festival in Norway.

The short film directed by Farnoush Samadi grabbed the award for best film by the audience choice.

‘Gaze’ is about a woman who witnesses something happening inside a bus while commuting home from work. She has to decide whether to reveal it or not.

Written by Ali Asgari, the short film has so far represented Iran at a number of globally acclaimed film festivals, including the 70th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, the 34th edition of the Tehran Short Film Festival in Iran, and the 31st edition of the American Film Institute Festival in Hollywood, the US.

Some 13 short films went on the Norwegian screen during a special program titled ‘Iran Today’, dedicated to productions by Iranian filmmakers.

‘Highlight’ by Shahrzad Dadgar, ‘Icky’ by Parastou Kardgar, ‘Retouch’ by Kaveh Mazaheri and ‘Numbness’ by Milad Jarmouz were among the selected short films.

The list went on with ‘Third Gender’ by Forough Rezaei, ‘Animal’ by Bahman and Bahram Ark, ‘Sales Ad’ by Qasideh Golmakani and ‘Not Yet’ by Arian Vazir-Daftari.

The lineup also included ‘Lunch Time’ by Alireza Qasemi, ‘The Drive’ by Tanin Torabi, ‘Personal’ by Sonia Hadadi, ‘Bystander’ by Mohsen Baqeri-Dastgerdi and ‘Gaze’ by Farnoush Samadi.

Three of them, specifically ‘Retouch’, ‘Gaze’ and ‘Animal’, were selected to compete at the international section of the event.

Based in Trondheim, central Norway, the Minimalen is an annual independent short film event that was set up in 1988.

It covers new productions from Norway, Scandinavia and the rest of the world, as well as special focus programs and retrospectives.

The 30th edition of the Minimalen Short Film Festival was held on January 23-28, 2018.

MG/MF