Imagineindia festival honors Iranian actor Hamed Behdad

The Imagineindia International Film Festival in Spain has awarded Iranian actor Hamed Behdad for his role in ‘Castle of Dreams’.

The actor received the award for best second actor at the 19th edition of the Spanish gala.

Behdad shared the award with Ranvir Shorey for his role in ‘Kadakh’ directed by Rajat Kapoor from India.

The Imagineindia had also nominated ‘Castle of Dreams’ in the categories of best script and best music.

Directed and produced by Reza Mirkarimi, the film tells the story of a 42-year-old father of two.

He unintentionally kills a relative. A court of law rules the murder was accidental.

Getting out of prison, he leaves his wife and kids and moves to another city.

After a while, the father has to go back to his hometown as his wife is brain-dead.

He has to take care of his son and daughter while his wife is hospitalized.

Although reluctant, he does his best to fulfill the children’s fantasy of building a dream castle drawn by their mother.

Behdad also won the Best Actor award at the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival in China.

Co-written by Mohsen Qaraee and Mohammad Davoudi, the 86-minute film brought Mirkarimi the Best Director award and the highest prize at the Shanghai event.

The title also won the awards for Best Film and Best Director at the 18th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

Moreover, ‘Castle of Dreams’ received the awards for best film and best director at the Batumi International Art-House Film Festival in Georgia as well as the Crystal Simorgh awards for Best Screenplay and Best Music at the 2019 Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

The film has hit the screen at several global events, including the Universal Film Festival in the US and the Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, where it received the best film award.

ifilm has interviewed the actors Behdad and Youna Tadayyon, the actresses Zhila Shahi and Niousha Alipour, as well as the director of ‘Castle of Dreams’. Click here to watch the report.

The ImagineIndia is mainly devoted to promote cooperation between the Indian Subcontinent, the rest of Asia, and Spain along with the European Union, according to the festival’s website.

The 19th edition of event took place in Madrid on September 24-October 8.

Iranian actress Mahtab Keramati, who won the best actress award at the Imagineindia in 2015 for her role in ‘Ghosts’ by Darioush Mehrjouee, was the jury president of the 19th Imagineindia. The jury also had Iranian filmmaker Mehdi Rahmani.

Iranian films ‘Old Men Never Die’ by Reza Jamali, ‘A Man without Shadow’ by Alireza Raeesian, ‘The Warden’ by Nima Javidi, ‘Driving Lessons’ by Marzieh Riahi, ‘Dog’ by Hessam Salehbeig, and ‘Still’ by Anis Nasseri were also screened at various sections of the 19th Imagineindia.

Read more:

Cinema ifilm highlights ‘Castle of Dreams’

‘Castle of Dreams’ bags nominations at Religion Today

'Castle of Dreams' grabs noms at Asian Film Awards

‘Castle of Dreams’ receives 3 nominations at ImagineIndia

MG/MG