The Göteborg Film Festival’s Nordic Film Market announced its production award winners during a ceremony this evening and Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi was among the top honorees.
Ebrahimi won the Tint Post-Production Award, valued at 400,000 SEK (36,000 USD), for her solo directorial debut Honor of Persia. The film is produced by Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Ebrahimi, and Jacob Jarek. Described by the festival as a “brave new work,” the film’s synopsis reads: An old explicit tape is leaked, and Ava Rad, a beloved star of Iranian TV and cinema adored by the religious Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and Iran’s cultural elite, begins a descent into hell. A story of betrayal, a tragicomic portrait of a truly schizophrenic country, between religious totalitarianism and the extravagance of a youth under pressure.
Other top winners were Finnish filmmaker Miia Tervo, who won the Film Finances Scandinavia Award for You Crazy Thing. The film was produced by Marko Talli (Yellow Film & TV). The award comes with €15,000 in development support.
The Film Finances Scandinavia Award jury at this year’s Nordic Film Market featured Swedish filmmaker Goran Kapetanović, Katrin Mersmann, Head of Funding and International Co-production at MOIN Film Fund, and New Zealand International Film Festival head Paolo Bertolin.
On Tervo’s project, the jury said: “We unanimously decided to award a story coming from a remote place that hits close to the heart thanks to an equally heartfelt and hilarious presentation. This project promises to turn into a melancholic yet humorous view on human life that reveals how what makes us different could be just a pair of keys.”
The Göteborg Film Festival ends Sunday.
