‘Slaughter’ shines at Global University Film Awards

Iran’s short film ‘Slaughter’, co-directed by Saman Hosseinpour and Ako Zand-Karimi, has garnered two awards at the Global University Film Awards (GUFA) 2020 in China.

‘Slaughter’, which won four nominations at the GUFA, succeeded to grab two awards at the event, including the best Asian narrative and best director awards. It also received a total of $20,000 and the Golden Awards of the festival.  

The social flick narrates the story of a small village family whose life depends on their one and only cow that they own.  They are in fact very fond of the animal which however, must be sold to help the family live through a rough winter.

The family son saddened by this decision will let the cow go to prevent its doomed destiny.

The short took its international premiere at the 2018 Early Bird International Student Film Festival in Bulgaria.

‘Slaughter’ has already won the best short film award at the 18th Villammare Film Festival in Italy, the jury prize at the 8th Rural Short Film Competition (Mostremp 2019) in Spain as well as the best screenplay award at the 7th Parma Music Film Festival in Italy..

‘Slaughter’ was also announced as the Best Film from the Audiences' View at the 2nd Fredonia Film Festival in the US and brought Fereydoun Hamedi the Best Actor award at the 3rd International University Festival Cine-Literature of Agadir in Morocco.

Likewise, the short film was named the Best Fiction Film at "The Unprecedented Cinema" of the International Festival of Short Film in Estonia and received Best Cinematography award at the Asian Cinematography Awards in the Philippines.

The Global University Film Awards (GUFA) was postponed twice due to the coronavirus and was eventually held online on November 4-6 at the Baptist University of Hong Kong.

The GUFA is well-recognized as the most-celebrated international student event ever undertaken in Hong Kong.

Over the 3-day event, participants comprising students, academic scholars and film industry professionals joined a myriad of activities.  

MM/FM