Italian museum spotlights Iran female director Ida Panahandeh

Iranian female director Ida Panahandeh has come under the spotlight at MAXXI museum in Italy.

Hosting the Iranian director, the Italian museum has set to screen Panahandeh's ‘Israfil’ on June 24, 2018.

born in Tehran, Panahandeh obtained a degree in Film Photography in 2002 and a master's in Film Direction in 2005, both from the Arts University of Tehran, where she began her film career with several short films.

After university she was invited to direct films for Iranian television, with which she won awards at numerous national festivals.

In 2009, she took part in the Berlin 'Talent Campus'. Having as a central theme a woman's place in modern society she has focused on women's rights.

Her first feature 'Nahid' won her worldwide acclaim. As Iran’s only representative, it was screened at the Un Certain Regard sidebar of the 68th Cannes International Film Festival, winning a prize for debut films.

In 2016, Hong Kong International Film Festival granted a nomination to Panahandeh for her directorial debut.

‘Israfil’ is the second feature film by Panahandeh that was screened at the BFI London film festival in the UK, the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, the Festival International du Film d’Aubagne in France, the Filmmor Women’s Film Festival and the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, both in Turkey.

Panahandeh has won some international awards for her ‘Israfil’, including the NETPAC Award of the Iranian Film Festival Australia and two awards at the CineIran Festival in Canada.

She is under the Rome spotlight along with two other Iranian female directors, Narges Abyar and Rakhshan Banietemad, during a program dubbed 'Three Women, Another Cinema from Iran' slated for June 23-25, 2018.

The MAXXI museum is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The art venue displayed a treasured collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017.

MG/MG