“Fish and Cat” director dedicates awards to Iranian national football team

TEHRAN,June 23(MNA) – Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri dedicated two awards he received on Saturday for his “Fish and Cat” at an Slovenian festival to the Iran national football team after the team staged a strong performance against Argentina during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. “Great bravery belongs to the Iranian football team,” Mokri said in his acceptance speech during the closing ceremony of the Bled Film Festival. He won the Special Jury Award and the Audience Award at the festival. Iran produced a stirring performance against an Argentina team of all the aggressive talents on Saturday, where Lionel Messi scored a late goal in the first minute of added time to give Argentina a 1-0 victory. The film was competing with seven other features in the first edition of Bled Film Festival, which ran from June 17-21. “Fish and Cat” tells the story of a group of university students who face various problems during their trip to northern Iran. The Best Film Award of the festival went to “The Dark Valley” by director Andreas Prochaska from Austria. “Fish and Cat” has won several international awards including the FIPRESCI Award and the Youth Jury Award at the 28th Fribourg International Film Festival in April 2014. It also won the best film award at the 13th Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival in Portugal in November 2013. The 70th Venice International Film Festival honored the film with the Special Orizzonti Award for Innovative Content in September 2013.