ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE FCI 2013 WINNERS

Section one – Experimental, Photo Film and Animation

First Place: Bullshit, by Sadaf Ahmadi.

Second Place: My Little Rider, by Marziyeh Sayed Salehi.

Third Place: A tie between two films: Hejab – Made in Iran, by Omid Ghiaie & A Familiar Frame, by Pooria Jahanshad.

Section two – Short films

First Place: Oyan-The Other Side, by Esmaeel Monsefi

Second Place: After the Class, by Fereshteh Parnian

Third Place: Temporary, by Behzad Azad

Section three – Documentary

First Place: Scorpio, by Farideh Saremi & Omid Hashemlou

Second Place: Dialogue with Revolution, by Robert Safarian

The only feature film in the Festival, Elegy to Childhood: A Dream, received a note of appreciation from the jurors, although it was not part of the competition.

JUROR BIOS

Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, one of the most highly acclaimed contributors to Iranian cinema, first became involved in theater during her teen years. Later, she received her degree in arts from Tehran University and emerged as one of the most celebrated actresses of Post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Motamed-Arya was nominated nine times for best actress at the Fajr International Film festival winning the crystal Simorgh a total of four times. Her awards include Montréal Film Festival and Vincennes International Festival.

Luka Arsenjuk is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at University of Maryland, College Park. He got his B.A. from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and his PhD from Duke University. His research concerns the intersection of cinema, politics, and theory.

Ms. Abigail Maravalli recently completed her master’s degree at American University where she researched Iranian social media and independent film in light of the ethics of free speech and government censorship. Abigail is a film producer and has worked on numerous projects as an outreach coordinator. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. and servers as the Project Coordinator at the Center for Social Media. Abigail is thrilled to serve on this jury with the belief that a re-energized film industry and the global potential of social media are rewriting the avenues for creating social change.

Farid Bozorgmehr moved to the United States in 1977 and received his Master’s Degree in theater from The American University in Washington DC. He pursued his career as producer of theatrical works in the 1980′s. In early 1990′s, he began working closely with Iranian-American director, Amir Naderi in A,B,C, Manhattan (1977), Marathon (2002), Sound Barrier (2005), Vegas: based on a true story (2008) and CUT (2011). He has also made 2 documentaries, “My Story, How to Stand up to Cancer” (2003), and ” The Beede Family, An American Life” (2005.)