Lebu Int’l Film Festival bestows award on ‘Song Sparrow’

Iran-Denmark short animated film ‘Song Sparrow’ has succeeded to win award at the Lebu International Film Festival in Chile.

The 20th Lebu filmfest bestowed the Best Short Animation Award upon Farzaneh Omidvarnia from Iran for her multiple award-winning animation.

Also produced and written by Omidvarnia, the joint production is now qualified for Oscar 2021 after winning the award at the Lebu fest which is an Oscar-qualifying festival.

‘Song Sparrow’ is about a group of refugees who try to reach themselves to a safe country in search for a better life. They pay a smuggler to convey them across the boarders in a fridge truck. However, the freezing temperature of the truck turns their hopes for a better future into a fierce struggle for survival.

The animated short flick has been already acclaimed internationally and won prizes in different festivals, including best short animation award at the 2019 Giffoni Film Festival in Italy, a special mention at the Cortile International Short Film Festival in Italy, best animated film award at Festival Internazionale del Cortometraggio in France as well as a special mention at MyArt Film Festival in Italy.  

This film, which uses puppet animation, is about real events which happened in Austria in August 2015 and in Ireland 2019.

Lebu International Film Festival is the only film festival in Chile qualifier of short films for the Oscar Awards in the categories of International Animation, Regional and International Fiction.

The event was held in the Bío Bío Region, Chile on February 10-16, 2020.

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