TISFF’s Grand Prix goes to ‘Psalms of Sorrow’

The 43rd edition of the Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) has come to an end, with the Grand Prix going to Iranian filmmaker Yousef Kargar’s ‘Psalms of Sorrow’.

The closing ceremony was held at Milad Tower in Tehran on October 22, with honoring the winners in the presence of filmmakers, cinema officials and media representatives.

The event was attended by head of the Cinema Organization of Iran Raed Faridzadeh, the festival director Behrouz Shoeibi, and several other cultural officials and artists.

In the international competition, the award for Best Fiction Film went to Danish filmmaker Mikkel Bjørn Kehlert for ‘Måske i marts’ (“Maybe in March”).

Kiana Naqshineh from Germany won the award for Best Animation for ‘Im Auto Tapes und Butterbrot’, and Chilean filmmaker Niels Atallah received the award for Best Experimental Film for ‘Merrimundi’.

Iranian filmmaker Seifollah Samadian’s ‘That Day and Night, the Same Day’ received an honorable mention in documentary section, and Afghan filmmaker Elham Ehsas won the Best AI Film award for ‘Forgotten Spaceman’.

Houman Mahmoudi’s ‘Bi Dar Koja’ took home the Emerging Horizons Special Award, while Russian filmmaker Alexandra Sokolovskaya’s ‘The Sun Fell and Rolled Away’ won an honorary diploma for Best Fiction Film in the international competition.

In the national fiction competition, ‘Goreh’ directed by Marjan Ashrafizadeh received the awards for Best Director and Best Film in the Iranian Cinema section, and the audience award was presented to ‘Adam’.

In national section, the awards for Best Screenplay, the jury’s special award, and an honorary diploma for performance went to Sima Rasouli and Abolfazl Azizi for ‘Injury’, Panah Alvani’s ‘Japanese’, Ali Baqeri for ‘Qasameh’, and Narges Hezareh for ‘Bi Dar Koja’, respectively.

In the animation category, Malek Eqbali received the Golden Leaf for ‘Like a Friend, Like a Deer’, Habib Alvani won the award for Best Documentary for ‘Ehtezar’, Mohammad Sina Heidarizadeh took home the Golden Leaf in the adapted-film category for ‘A Cat in the Snow’, and Milad Shahjani’s ‘The Song of the Sword Behind Glass Trenches’ grabbed the award for documentary research.

The 43rd TISFF was held on October 17-22, bringing together Iranian and international filmmakers in fiction, documentary, experimental and animation competitions.

The event is among the region’s established short-film platforms and provides a venue for emerging filmmakers to present their work to audiences and industry professionals.