Italian fest awards Iranian ‘Exam’, ‘Eaten’

The 15th edition of the Dieciminuti Film Festival in Italy has awarded Iranian short flicks ‘Exam’ and ‘Eaten’.

‘Exam’ shared the grand prize of the jury with ‘Pizza Boy’ by Gianluca Zonta from Italy and the short animation ‘Eaten’ received a special mention.

Directed by Sonia Haddad, the 15-minute ‘Exam’ is “a simple story that has illustrated enough about the position of women and youngsters against authority and repression. For its everlasting effect and progressive change of emotion, for its surprising cycle of events, for its lead teenager actress and her weary fatigued distinguished face that carried the story until a poignant closure,” the jury of the Tirana International Film Festival wrote.

The short film narrates the story of a girl named Sadaf who has forebodings for the exam she is going to take.

But today, instead of going to school, she delivers a package of illegal drugs to a client and gets caught in a weird cycle of events.

‘Exam’ has already grabbed awards such as the award for Best Live Action Short Film at the Tirana International Film Festival in Albania, the international student jury award at the BRNO16 International Short Film Festival in Czech Republic, and the AFI fest award which made the title qualified for the short film category of the 2021 Oscars.

Directed by Mohsen Rezapour, ‘Eaten’ is about a mysterious unknown planet named “Eaten”, a rabbit-like creature is eaten, but that's not the end of the story.

A brief synopsis for the 7-minute animation reads, “A rabbit has been eaten by a wolf, meeting the other rabbit, inside the predator’s stomach, which had been eaten by the wolf earlier. Now the two go on living in the new environment and the story goes on”.

Rezapour said although his animation is a fantasy production, it is not intended for the kids; due to the fact that the things that happen on the show are a bit harsh, aimed at the adults.

‘Eaten’ has so far taken part in a number of global events, including the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival in South Korea, the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in Germany, the Block Animation Party in the US, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, the Golden Beggar International Film Festival in Slovakia, where it won an Honorable Mention, and the Athens Animfest International Animation Festival in Greece, where it received the Distinction award.

‘Cocodrilo’ by Jorge Yúdice from Spain, ‘My Name Is Petya’ by Daria Binevskaya from Russia, as well as ‘Gunpowder’ by Romane Faure, Nathanael Perron, Léa Detrain, Benoit de Geyer d’Orth, Pel-Hsuan Lin, and Anne-Lise Kublak from France won the best film awards of the Dieciminuti.

The best documentary awards went to ‘Rewild’ by Nicholas Chin and Ernest Zacharevic from Indonesia.

‘Baradar’, written by Francesco Casolo and directed by Beppe Tufarulo from Italy won the award for best screenplay.

The 15th Dieciminuti Film Festival was held online on November 10-14, 2020, but the winners have been announced recently.

Read more:

Iran’s animation ‘Eaten’ reveals trailer

Iranian short animation ‘Eaten’ reveals poster, photos

‘Eaten’ gets honored at Athens Animfest

Slovakian Golden Beggar honors Iranian ‘Eaten’

Iran’s ‘Exam’ wins award at Tirana filmfest

Iranian short ‘Exam’ wins at BRNO16 Int’l Short Film Festival

MG/MG