The festival’s main prize, namely the Turquoise Award for Best Documentary, went to Morteza Shabani for producing ‘Rain and Bullets’.
The Best Feature-length documentary award in the International Competition section went to a German-American co-production ‘Ringside’, directed by Andre Hörmann.
Special Mention went to ‘Eclipse’ by Mohsen Ostad Ali, and the Special Jury Award went to ‘Sheep Hero’ by Ton Van Zantvoort from the Netherlands.
In the short documentary section, ‘Asho’ by Jafar Najafi received the first prize.
The Special Award in the mid-length documentary section went to ‘Spoon’ by Laila Pakalniņa (Latvia, Norway, Lithuania).
Meanwhile, ‘Breathless Animals’ by Lei Lei from the US won the best mid-length documentary award in the international section.
The National Competition
Best Scriptwriter Award: Amir Mehdi Hakim and Hojjat Bamorovat for ‘When Mehdi Was Born’
Best Sound Mixing Award: Ensieh Maleki for ‘The Unseen’
Best Original Score Award: Habib Khazaeifar for ‘No Place for Angels’
Best Research Award: Babak Goudarzinejad for ‘Unspoken Points in Crowded City’
Best Cinematographer Award: Morteza Poursamadi for ‘Narrow Red Line’
Best Editing Award: Morteza Payeshenas for ‘Rain and Bullets’
Best Director Award (Short Documentary): Ali Shahabinejad for ‘Abshar’
Best Director Award (Mid-length Documentary): Morteza Payeshenas and Hossein Momen for ‘Rain and Bullets’
Best Director Award (Feature-length Documentary): Mohsen Ostad Ali for ‘Eclipse’
Special Jury Award: Mohammad Sadegh Esmaeili for ‘Adour’
In the Martyr Avini Award section, the Golden award went to ‘The Old Man and the Singer’ by Amir Osanlou.
Meanwhile, the Audience Award went to ‘No Place for Angels’, directed by Sam Kalantari.
Cinema Vérité is Iran’s most prominent festival dedicated to documentaries, with an aim to express the relationship between reality and truth through documentary films.
The event is organized by Iran Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), and was presided over by Mohammad Hamidi Moghadam for its 13th edition, which was held in Tehran from December 9 to 15, 2019.
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