TEHRAN-The Iranian short film “Smile at Me” written, directed, and produced by Keyvan Azad received an honorable mention from the 4th Youality International Short Film Festival that was held in France on September 20.

More than 400 films took part at the 4th edition of the festival, which focuses on poetic filmmaking, ILNA reported.

“Smile at Me,” a 6-minute social drama, is about a young boy who decides to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge as a result of having difficult problems in life including loneliness, financial strains, and so on. However, on his way to the bridge, he faces a reality that completely changes his decision.

The cast of the 2024 production includes Amirhossein Fahadan, Arian Farshizadeh, Parham Gholamlu, Arian Tavasoli, Ayhan Ghorbani, and Samiyar Bagheri among others.

Youality International Short Film Festival is an annual short film festival based in France aiming to discover international filmmaking talents and make a network of filmmakers all over the world. The festival supports short films of general categories.

The festival tries to extend a new approach of introducing beautiful minds of filmmaking talents all over the world. It also seeks to support women filmmakers in a special regard.

Iranian director and playwright Kamran Rasoolzadeh, 46, in the president of the festival. “Gavchah” is one of his documentary films which was best travel film of the 41st “Autumn in Voronet” International Film Festival in Romania 2021.

Also a poet, singer, songwriter, and musician, he has published seven poetry books and three music albums, and has held concerts across Iran.

SS/SAB