Let’s get updated with latest on Iranian cinema

Let’s get updated with the latest events in Iranian art of cinema during the past week.

Iranian short film ‘Band’ won an award at the 2021 edition of the UWPG Film Festival in Canada. Directed by Erfan Shams, the film was nominated for “Best Editing”, “Best Production Design”, and “Best Director” awards at the festival, but it succeeded to grab the Best Director award.

“A woman - attempting to find a way out from what it seems to be an inner prison in her mind- decides to end her life for it is apparently the only way to escape from her mental state. After her suicide, she wakes up to a new life; this time in another prison which turns out to be inside a pregnant woman’s womb ready to give birth to the prisoner...,” a synopsis for the film reads.

Iranian short film ‘Inhale’ garnered the Best Short Film award at the 4th edition of the Chicago Southland International Film Festival in the US.

Directed by Nasser Zamiri, ‘Inhale’ is about a couple who have to deal with some challenges. “Ebrahim's recurring insomnia has caused tension between him and his wife, Marziyeh,” reads a tagline for the flick.

The 11th Garoa Awards in Brazil awarded Iranian director Erfan Ehteshami. He won the Best Director for the Narrative Short Film Award at the Brazilian film festival for his film ‘Sofa’.

‘Sofa’ was also nominated for best director, best screenplay, best cinematography, and best costume design and make-up. The film is about a boy who had to gather money to buy furniture for his sister’s marriage proposal ceremony.

Iranian short film ‘Hawaii’ received the Grand Prix award of the 11th edition of the One Take Film Festival in Croatia.

Produced and directed by Morteza Fereydouni, ‘Hawaii’ has a social story and was shot in Nowshahr of Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran.

“The film invites us for slices of its characters’ lives by going to the core of human relationships in a patriarchal society, where the script takes the lives of real people almost verbatim, presenting the struggle with rules and the ways of breaking them with subtlety and rawness all at once. The attention to detail and the attentive directing make this one take an outstanding cinematic achievement,” the jury members wrote on a side note to describe ‘Hawaii’. 

Read more:

One Take Film Festival awards ‘Hawaii’

Iranian film ‘Band’ awarded at UWPG festival

Iranian short ‘Inhale’ wins at Chicago Southland fest

Garoa Awards lauds Iranian director Erfan Ehteshami

MG/MG