The jury composed of critic Carmen Gray, curator Azu Nwagbogu and film expert Wieland Speck selected was assigned the task to honor a film with the GWFF Best First Feature Award, which is given a directorial feature debut at the Berlin Film Festival every year.
“The Scary of Sixty-First” by Dasha Nekrasova from the U.S. won the award this year.
“District Terminal”, co-directed by Bardia Yadegari and Ehsan Mirhosseini, is about Peyman, a poet and a junkie who lives with his mother in a Tehran neighborhood during the pandemic.
In the jury statement published by the Berlinale, they called the film “A world of blurry presence and future, framed by drug addiction and physical decay.”
“A situation populated by ancestors, threatened by an avalanche of ruinous waste,” the jury added.
Since 2006, when it introduced the GWFF Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of filmmakers.
The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the GWFF. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film.
Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder as both a useful instrument and memorable trophy.
In total, 13 directorial feature film debuts from the sections Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino were nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award.
The award will be presented during the official award ceremony at the Freiluftkino Museumsinsel on June 13.
Source: Tehran Times