Co-directed by Azadeh Musavi and Kurosh Atai, the film is about a Netherland-based Iranian woman who was adopted by a Dutch couple forty years ago, and returns to Iran to search for her family.
Finding Farideh was selected as Iran’s submission to the 92nd Academy Awards in the best foreign-language film category.
It is also on the list of 159 documentary features submitted for the Academy Awards.
Are You Volleyball?! by Mohammad Bakhshi won the best short film award and Time to Change by Maryam Rahimi received an honorable mention in this section.
Are You Volleyball?! is about a group of Arab asylum seekers, who arrive at an English speaking country border and can’t keep going. They have arguments with border guards every day until a deaf-mute boy becomes the catalyst for better communication between the two groups.
Time to Change is about some women who need to change their lives under the societal pressures and the difficulties of their lives.
Animated films Parivash by Ameneh Monshizadeh and The Spinning Top by Shiva Momtahan shared the festival’s director special award.
Over 30 Iranian feature and short films, including Orange Days by Arash Lahuti, Reza by Alireza Motamedi, Kingslayer by Vahid Amirkhani and Birthday Night by Omid Shams, were also screened at the festival.
The festival mostly focuses on films that are overlooked in Iran or international festivals.
Source: Tehran Times