Mowj Int’l Short Film Festival announces winners

The 4th edition of the Mowj International Short Film Festival has announced the winners.

The winners were honored during the closing ceremony of the gala on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf on Sunday.

The best documentary award at the international section of the event went to ‘Lene 1927’, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Behrouz Abbas-Dashti. The doc is about the journey of the Austrian painter Lene Schneider-Kainer (1885- 1971) to Iran.

The jury presented the special documentary award to ‘Kavez’ by Reza Akbarian. The documentary depicts the efforts by a tortoise, which is trapped in a net and tries to survive.

‘Just like Water’ directed by Manos Triantafillakis from Greece won the award for best short fiction. It tells the story of the father of the director, Spyros, his life and experiences, seeking to promote the natural beauty of the island of Crete on which the father left his imprint.

‘Chauffer’ by Arman Fayyaz from Iran won the best artistic achievement award.

Mahyar Mandegar from Iran received the awards for best film, best screenplay, and best director for ‘White Winged Horse’. As a result, the flick can directly attend the Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq.

The award for best short documentary was presented to ‘Ojagh’ by Ali Bolandnazar from Iran. It is about the rituals of the Qashqai Turkic tribe regarding fire.

Saeed Nejati received the best fiction award for ‘Dabor’. It shows how parents deal with their children’s puberty.

The international section hosted a lineup of 20 films while a total of 41 films competed at the national section of the event.

The foreign films were from Sweden, Iraq, Morocco, Spain, Tanzania, France, Lebanon, Austria, Syria, Peru, and some other countries.

Founder of the River Film Festival in Italy Emilio Della Chiesa, film producer Irina Ruiz Figueroa from Panama and Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya were the jury members of the international section of the festival this year.

The jury panel of the national section was formed by Kianoush Ayyari, Touraj Aslani, Houman Seyyedi, Mahvash Sheikholeslami, and Mohsen Ostadali.

The event was held in two main sections, including “Short film with the subject of travel and tourism” and “Short screenplay”, which was only for the Iranian participants.

The Kish Mowj International Short Film Festival aims at creating an interaction between short and feature cinema.

It also bridges the gap between Iranian filmmakers and filmmakers around the world.

MG/MG