7Berkeh: Three films with three different atmosphere won the main awards in 13th Kal Short Film Festival in Gerash.
Kal Festival is one of the main cultural events in Gerash and perhaps Fars province. The 13th festival was held from 6th to 8th of December and hosted 41 filmmakers from 8 provinces in the south of Iran. This year, the jury consisted of well-known filmmakers and critics: Abolfazl Jalili (director and writer), Reza Dorostkar (film critic, director of documentaries), Mehdi Naderi (director and writer), Behtash Sanaeiha (director and writer), and Mahmoud Rahmani (director of documentaries). These men announced their choices from among the 39 films in three categories of feature short film, short documentaries and experimental films.
At the end of the closing ceremony, Keivan Mohseni was the happiest person: he won three main awards for best feature film, best director and best cinematography for his thriller short film, “BOG”. In addition to these awards from Kal Festival, he was awarded the ISFA medal and diploma from Iranian Short Film Association.
Behnam Rezaei was the winner of main awards in the documentary category with his next-to-professional film, “The Grandeur of Zagros”. This 40-minute documentary about the wildlife of Zagros mountain chain won the awards for best documentary and best cinematography for documentary.
“Are You Volleyball?”, a compassionate, funny and heart-rending story about a group of Arab migrants, was another successful film in the festival. Mohammad Bakhshi, the director, was not present in the ceremony, but won two awards for best editing and best sound, and also an honorary diploma for best directing.
There was also another Gerashi director who took home an important award: Mohammad Reza Khavvaji won the audience selection award for his short drama about the war, “He was the Enemy.”
“The Weekend” by Vahid Bemani (best feature film – joint award), “Four Minutes of Silence” by Amir Ali Mirderikvand (best experimental film), “Baydagh” by Mohammad Hadi Esfandiari (best film in cultural heritage category), “Ashamed Morning” by Mehdi Tangestani (best screenplay), and “Black Bridge” by Ayyoub Marvanipour (best research for a documentary) were the other successful films in the 13th Kal Short Film Festival of Gerash.
To see pictures from the festival, click here.