Ida Panahandeh’s ‘Nahid’ won the Bright Future Award in the Un Certain Regard of 66th Cannes International Film Festival. The DEFC Head of Public Relations Office Shahnam Safajou chaired the ceremony. He read a message by Iranian female filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad; “‘Nahid’ is the first film of the DEFC in the auspices and management of Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Tabatabaeinejad,” he told the ceremony.
Tabatabaei welcomed the participants in the ceremony and shortly addressed them; “I grasp this opportunity to express my gratitude to all colleagues during the past year who worked hard to select 5 screenplays of a total of 35 screenplays; I thank Mojtaba Raei, Mehran Kashani, and Morteza Razaq Karimi, who apart from his responsibility in the DEFC, provided us with excellent advice and expert guidelines,” he told the attendants.
Ida Panahandeh was the next speaker, who thanked the officials of the DEFC; “we, directors, are dependent on government centers and it is inevitable; it is important and fortunate as well that the competent managers in different positions help the youth; I feel regrets for all those talented young directors who were deprived of their rights to shine and to flourish only due to mismanagement,” she added.
Bijan Emkanian, the producer of ‘Nahid,’ was the next to come to the podium; “I have already worked with good directors as Abolhassan Davoudi in ‘The Magic Journey’ and Abdollah Bakideh in ‘The Boot;’ as directors and producers in context of Iran, we should be exposed to regular tests, since all experiences are forgotten soon; when speaking about ‘Nahid’ however, I left no stone unturned to find the source to finance the film, but all with no avail; I found a modicum of hope when, perchance, meet Mr. Tabatabaeinejad in the Ministry of Culture corridors; the few minutes of talk were effective and he saw the project in such a positive light that the project took a new turn to better,” he remembered.
“When embarked on the project, I would not think of participating in Cannes festival, let alone winning an award; I just worked to add to the Iranian repertoire of good movies; movies with a claim to excellence found no way to Cannes, but ‘Nahid’ went forward and won even a trophy, which was a product of a sense of team work and common spirit,” Emkanian detailed.