Italy to feature Iran’s short animation ‘Song Sparrow’

Iranian-Danish short animation ‘Song Sparrow’ has been scheduled to go on screen at the 18th edition of the Ischia Film Festival (IFF) in Italy.

Produced, written, and directed by Farzaneh Omidvarnia, the short animation is about a group of refugees in search for a better life in another place.

They pay someone smuggle them across the boarder 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 short title has taken part at different global events and won several honors, including best short animation award at the 2019 Giffoni Film Festival in Italy, special mention at the Cortile International Short Film Festival in Italy, best animated film award at the Festival Internazionale del Cortometraggio in France, special mention at the MyArt Film Festival in Italy, and Best Short Animation Award at the 20th Lebu International Film Festival in Chile.

The Iran-Denmark joint production is qualified for Oscar 2021 by winning the award at the Lebu event.

Some other Iranian titles, including ‘The Old Man and the Singer’, ‘Weightlessness’, ‘The Other’ and ‘Weekend’, will also compete at the IFF.

The IFF is a competition open to feature films and documentaries regardless of language: fiction, documentary, animation.

The theme of the festival is particularly focused "on the location and enhancement of the cultural and landscape identity of the territories chosen for filming".

This edition of the event will be held online on June 27-July 4, 2020.

MG/AG