Selected Works for the Abbas Kiarostami International Film Festival Announced

According to cinemadrame news agency, the list of films in the competition section and selected short screenplays for the Abbas Kiarostami International Film Festival has been announced.

The second Abbas Kiarostami International Short Film Festival, directed by Hamed Soleimanzadeh, will be held simultaneously in Berlin, Tehran, and several other cities from July 1 to July 4, 2025, across two competitive sections: short films and short screenplays.

Short Screenplay Section: “Master Gholamhossein Farnoud Award”

According to the festival, the titles of the selected short screenplays for the “Master Gholamhossein Farnoud Award” competition have been announced. Out of 627 received short screenplays, 35 have been selected for the festival.

The jury for the short screenplay section comprises Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Shadmehr Rastin, and Soroush Sehat, with Mostafa Zarehparvar overseeing the section. The selected screenplays are as follows:

1. “White” by Arefeh Safatzadeh
2. “Gathering” by Jafar Khalili Pachi
3. “For Hope” by Amirhossein Shomali
4. “Third-B” by Mehri Shahverdi
5. “Gorgas” by Mehdi Afrough
6. “Homboad” by Amirhossein Talebi
7. “Baton” by Mohammad Zare and Ra’na Vaezi
8. “Havar” by Habib Zahirnia
9. “Deputy” by Meysam Amiri Hosseini
10. “Greetings” by Zahra Khamseh
11. “Maison” by Farzaneh Habibi Neyeh
12. “Double Barrel” by Kamal Parnak
13. “In My Small Night” by Mohammad Moein Sharafayi
14. “Hedieh Tehrani” by Sajjad Moshtagh
15. “Inspector” by Abolfazl Moghayeseh
16. “Milk Tooth” by Behzad Sheybani
17. “Dreams” by Mehdi Mirbagheri
18. “A Birth in the Fog” by Nima Tanabandeh and Mohammad Wahabi
19. “Ahmad” by Hera Khanmirzaei
20. “Figure” by Sahra Jahangiri
21. “Death Sometimes Drinks Vodka” by Niloufar Rahmani
22. “Under the Tree’s Shadow” by Mohammad Hossein Mirfenderski
23. “A Pit the Size of a City” by Mehran Oshrieh and Alireza Bakhshi Ostovar
24. “Equipping” by Seyed Mohammad Hossein Mousavi
25. “Shakib” by Erfan Ghafouri Sanati
26. “Gripaj” by Mohammadreza Shahriari
27. “Maquette” by Behzad Aghajani
28. “Like a Writer” by Ahmad Boroumand
29. “Bi Ahar” by Mobin Nasrin Far
30. “Behind the Curtain” by Nafiseh Zare and Atefeh Salehi
31. “Unfinished Harvest” by Saeed Moltajee
32. “Female, Female” by Mohammadreza Shoushtari
33. “Geranium” by Farshad Ebrahimi
34. “On Chapter Three” by Sepehr Mallahosseini
35. “A Candle on the Red Hill” by Parya Dousti

Short Film Section

Hamed Soleimanzadeh also announced the names of the films in the festival’s competition section, stating: “It is our honor and pride that our young festival has been met with such a warm reception from independent filmmakers around the world for two consecutive editions, and we are making every effort to appreciate your trust and support. Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema taught us how, with simplicity, one can convey the most complex philosophical concepts of humanity through the language of poetry, image, and thought, covering a wide range of cinematic themes and forms.”

He noted that 780 short films were received from 52 countries worldwide and announced the 33 selected short films for the competition section as follows:

• “Form” by Melika Pazouki (Iran)
• “Alfalfa Sweat” by Mahyar Ghezel Souflou (Iran)
• “Ghoutar” by Ali Alizadeh (Iran)
• “Changing Rooms” by Violette Gitton (France)
• “A Good Boy” by Paul Vincent de Lestrade (France, Belgium)
• “La Perra” by Carlo Melos Gampert (Colombia, France)
• “Even Through It’s Night” by Guillermo Gallo (Spain, France)
• “A Study of Empathy” by Hilke Rönfeldt (Denmark, Germany)
• “Butterfly” by Florence Miailhe (France)
• “Dreams Like Paper Boats” by Samuel Francois Suffrin (Haiti)
• “A Crab in the Pool” by Jean-Sébastien Hamel and Alexandra Myotte (Canada)
• “Kings” by Olivier Cote (Canada)
• “Oasis” by Justin Martin (Canada)
• “Compulsory Symphony” by Parisa Tavassoli (Iran)
• “Night Train” by Sofia Guttman (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
• “The Shore” by Arun Shaheen (Netherlands)
• “Mama” by Naji Ismail (Egypt)
• “The Moving Garden” by Inês Lima (Portugal)
• “Bread from Tehran” by Roshanak Roshan (France)
• “Lightness” by Carlo Chinca (Italy)
• “Please Make It Work” by Daniel Soares (Portugal, Switzerland)
• “Campos Belos” by David Ferreira (Portugal)
• “A Peculiar Night” by Enzo Martinez (France)
• “Boy” by Saman Hossein Pour (Iran)
• “Hippopotami” by Jianjie Lin (China, Hong Kong)
• “Tako Tsubo” by Eva Pedroza and Fanny Sorgo (Austria, Germany)
• “Mori” by Yakub Tekintanğaç (Turkey)
• “Society of Clothes” by Jeong Dah-hee (Canada, France, South Korea)
• “Immigrant” by Niki Heshmati (Iran, Afghanistan)
• “Amarela” by André Hayato Saito (Brazil)
• “Sauna Day” by Anna Hintz and Tushar Prakash (Estonia)
• “Nada De Todo Esto” by Francesco Canton and Pato Martinez (Argentina, Spain, USA)
• “Crossroads” by Igor Angelkov (Macedonia)

According to the festival, among the selected works, some films have previously been featured in festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Toronto, Oberhausen, Clermont-Ferrand, and the Oscars.

Sidebar Section: “Selected FIPRESCI Films”

Additionally, three films will be screened in the festival’s sidebar section titled “Selected FIPRESCI Films”: “Children of the White Mountain” by Yalçın Çiftçi (Turkey), “Under the Lake” by Thanasis Trouboukis (Greece, Finland), and “Before Lunch” by Simon Szabó (Hungary).

These films have previously won the FIPRESCI Award (International Federation of Film Critics) at other film festivals.

Sebastián Lelio, Marina Vorobjova, Agustina San Martín, Richard Sammel, Shahram Mokri, Golab Adineh, and Mehrdad Oskoui will serve as the jury for the short film section.