Awards Winners
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Life in Fog (Zendegi dar Meh) (1999)
- Writer/Director: Bahman Ghobadi
- Camera: Bayram Fazli
- Editor: Mohammad Ali Sajjadi
- Sound: As’ad Khoshnud
- Music: Alireza Kohandairy
- Executive Producer: Bahman Maghsoudlou
- Producer: Behrouz Maghsoudlou
- Production: IFVC
- Cast: Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini, Nezhad Ekhtiar-dini
- Iran, 28 min., Color, 1999
- Awards: Selected for Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, France (Winner, Special Jury Prize, Mention du Jury Jeunes); Aspen Shortsfest, USA (Winner, Horizon Award); St. Petersburg Film Festival, Russia (Winner, Grand Prize); Vila do Conde Film Festival, Portugal (Winner, Grand Prize, RTP Onda Curta); Montecatini Film Festival, Italy (Winner, Special Plaque); Cinema du Reel, France; Tampere International Film Festival, Finland; Munich Documentary Film Festival, Germany; Seattle International Film Festival, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Short Film Festival of Drama, Greece; Huntington International Film Festival, USA; Festival of Festivals, Denmark; Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea; Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, USA (Winner, Special Jury Prize); dokumentART, Germany; FrankfurterFilmschau International Short Documentary, Germany; Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, USA (Winner, Grand Prize); Corto Imola Festival, Italy (Winner, Grand Prize); Festival del Cortometraggio, Siena, Italy (Winner, Grand Prize, Best Documentary); Leipzig International Film Festival, Germany; Regensburg Short Film Week, Germany; Cinema Mediterranean Montpellier, France; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA; Flickerfest 2000, Sydney, Australia (January 2000) (Winner, Best Documentary); Fajr Film Festival, Iran (February 2000); UCLA Film & Television Archive, USA; Rose Art Museum, Boston, USA; International Festival of Short Film and Documentary of Bilbao; International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam; Webster University Film Series, St. Louis, USA
A fourteen-year-old boy, forced to provide for his younger siblings after the death of their parents, is driven to quit school and smuggle goods across the Iran/Iraq border.
About the filmmaker
Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1968 in the city of Baneh in Kurdestan, Iran. He began his film career in Kurdestan in 1987 and from 1992 continued his film activities in Tehran. In 1998, he graduated with a degree in directing from the School of Broadcasting, Tehran. He worked as an assistant director to a several Iranian filmmakers, most notably working on Abbas Kia-Rostami’s Special Ceremony (1999).Mr. Ghobadi subsequently fleshed out Life in Fog into the internationally-acclaimed feature A Time for Drunken Horses. His subsequent films have continued his success, keeping him in the forefront of the new wave of Iranian cinema
Filmography:That Man Came, 1994; Again Rain with Song, 1995; And Now Life, 1995; Like Mother, 1996; A Soldier Called Amin,1997; The Party (Mihmani), 1997; The Notebook Quota (Sahmiyeh-ye Daftar), 1997; God’s Fish (Mahi-ye Khoda), 1997; Life in Fog (Zendegi dar Meh), 1999; Melodies of the Plains Girls, 1999; A Time for Drunken Horses, 2000; Marooned in Iraq, 2002; Daf, 2003; Turtles Can Fly, 2004; Half Moon, 2006
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The Ring (1999) - Second part of the Trilogy of Kish
- Writer/Editor/Director: Abolfazl Jalili
- Camera: Massoud Karani
- Cast: Hafez Pakdel
- Production: Kish Productions
- Iran, 22 Min., Color, 1999
- Courtesy of Gholamreza Mossavi
- Selected for Cannes Film Festival, 1999
- Subtitled in English by IFVC
- US Premiere
A young man from the countryside whose family can’t afford to pay for his education arrives on the island of Kish illegally to find a job.
About the filmmaker
Filmography:
Abolfazl Jalili was born in Saveh, Iran in 1957. After devoting most of his time to painting he began filming with an 8mm camera during his adolescence as a member of an association of amateur filmmakers. He then studied cinema at the Tehran School of Dramatic Art, which he left to start making children’s films for Iranian television. He subsequently directed a number of documentary films on the social consequences of the war. Jalili is a prolific and controversial figure in Iranian cinema. Though his feature films are still subject to censure in his native land, he has managed to garner many prestigious awards at a variety of international film festivals. He has directed eleven documentaries, five shorts, and twelve feature films. He has won more than thirty international awards from Venice, Rotterdam, London, San Sebastian, Nantes, Tokyo, India and other prestigious film festivals.Milad, 1983; Bahar, 1984; Gal, 1988; Dorna, 1989; Dance of Dust, 1990 (Winner, Silver Leopard, Locarno Film Festival, 1998; Best Asian Film, Tokyo Film Festival, 1998; Director’s Award, Festival des Trois Continents, Nantes, 1998); Det Means Girl, 1994 (Winner, Jury Award, Venice Film Festival, 1997); A True Story, 1996 (In competition, Venice Film Festival; Winner, Grand Prix, Festival des Trois Continents, Nantes, 1997; selected for Sundance Film Festival, 1997); Dan, 1997 (Winner, Jury Award, San Sebastian Film Festival, 1998; Selected for Sundance Film Festival, 1998); Tales of Kish (The Ring) (Official selection, Cannes, 1999); Delbaran, 2001 (Winner, Special Jury Award, Locarno Film Festival, 2001; Cinema and Youth Prize & FICC/IFFS, Locarno Film Festival, 2001; First Prize, Festival des Trois Continents, Nantes, 2001; Special Jury Prize, Tokyo International Film Festival, 2001; Selected for Rotterdam International Film Festival and New Films/New Directors, New York, 2002); Abjad, 2002-3; Hafez, 2007
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Olympics in the Camp (2003)
- Director: Majid Majidi
- Camera: Morteza Por Samadi
- Sound: Mohammad Reza Delpak
- Editor: Hassan Doost
- Producer: Majid Majidi and N.O.C.I.R. Iran
- Iran, 5 min., Color, 2003
Some kids in a camp in Afghanistan gather the bullet shells from a field and turn it into a playing field for eternal friendship in the hope of a future with no war and no violence.
About the filmmaker:
Majidi was born in Tehran in 1959. He is the only Iranian director to garner an Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film with his Children of Heaven. Majidi began his career in cinema as an actor and was the lead in Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Boycott. His directorial debut, Baduk, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, and his second venture, Father, received a prize and recognition at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Majidi is also a triple-time winner of the Grand Prize of the Americas at the Montreal World Film Festival for Children of Heaven, The Color of Paradise and Baran. His most recent film is The Willow Tree from 2005. -
Rakhsh on Flesh (Rakhsh bar Naghsh) (2003)
- Writer/Director: Mohammad Ehsani
- Camera: Bayram Fazli
- Sound: Rohalah Jafar Beyglou
- Editor: Mehdi Bagheri
- Producer: Hamed Soleimanpanah
- Cast: Ahad Shahamod
- Iran, 14 min., Color, 2003, Documentary
- Awards: Tehran International Film Festival November 2003; 2nd Yadegar Documentary Film Festival, Tehran, May 2003; 5th Kish International Documentary Film Festival, Kish Island, December 2003; Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA, August 2003; Santiago International Film Festival, Chile, November 2003; Alternative International Short Film Festival, Romania, November 2005
This is a documentary about the life and work of an old masseuse in one of the old bathhouses of Tabriz. Working very hard, he rubs the back and shoulders of the customers in a traditional way. He is also a storyteller. Every night he tells stories from the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) in one of the city’s teahouses.
About the filmmaker:
Mohammad Ehsani was born in Tabriz (Northern Iran) in 1973 He studied English literature at the University of Tabriz. He has made several documentary films, including The Lovers: The Victims (2004), which takes a compassionate and unflinching look at Iranian HIV/AIDS victims. Mr. Ehsani is a Member of IDA and the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Society. His films have been screened in over thirty international film festivals around the globe.
Filmography:Rakhsh on Flesh, 2003; The Lovers: The Victims, 2004; Bewildered, 2005; Polkeh, 2005; Cherry Orchard, 2006; Tabriz: Images from the Forgotten World, 2007
