Iranian movies win awards at Irish festival

Tehran, April 7, IRNA - Two animated films, “Sugarland” and “The Adventures of Mirzabalad”, and two short films, “The Theft” and “Motherly”, from Iran have won awards at the Silk Road Film Festival in Dublin, the English-language daily ˈTehran Timesˈ reported on Monday. “Sugarland” directed by Babak Nazari received the best animation award and “The Adventures of Mirzabalad” directed by Elham Mortazavi and Amir-Hossein Salehi won the best short animation prize at the festival, which was held from March 19 to 25, organizers announced. In addition, “The Theft” directed by Mohammad Farahani won second prize and “Motherly” by Navid Nik-khah Azad received third prize in the short film section of the festival. First prize went to Turkish director Koray Sevindi for “Bread”. The best feature-film award was presented to “Void” from Lebanon. It was directed by Maria Abdel Karim, Naji Bechara, Jad Beyrouthy, Salim Habr, Christelle Ighniades, Tarek Korkomaz and Zeina Makki. The jury of festival was headed jointly by cinematographer Mahmud Kalari and director Khashayar Mahmudabadi from Iran. The event was sponsored by Haghighi Persian Carpets, a major carpet weaving company in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.