TEHRAN-The Iranian film “Motherless” directed by Morteza Fatemi won the Award for the Best Foreign Language Feature Film at the 7th Wales International Film Festival on the last day of the event on September 15.

It was the 5th presence of the movie in international arena and brought it the 5th award as it had garnered four other awards from film festivals of Dhaka 2023 (Best Film), Crossing the Screen 2023 (Best Film), Bengaluru 2023 (Best Film) and Rainbow 2023 (Best Director), Mehr reported.

The film is about an educated, middle-aged couple, Amir Ali and Marjan, who lead a quiet life. When Marjan insists on renting a womb and a surrogate mother enters their life, unintentionally they go through different tests and face moral dilemmas.

Amir Aghaei, Mitra Hajjar, Pejman Jamshidi, and Pardis Pourabedini are among the cast of the 84-minute film that was made in 2022.

Having won five international awards so far, more than any other Iranian films this year, “Motherless” seems a good choice for Iran to submit to the 96th Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature.

So far, 40 countries have submitted their films to the Academy and the stipulated deadline for these submissions is set at October 2.

On December 21, a shortlist comprising 15 finalists will be announced. Subsequently, the ultimate five nominees will be unveiled on January 23, 2024.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

the 2023 edition witnessed a substantial total of 92 submissions in the Best International Feature category.

During the past edition of the Oscar, Iran has had three nominations in the category including Majid Majidi’s “Children of Heaven” in 1999 as well as Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” in 2012 and “The Salesman” in 2017, with both of Farhadi’s films winning the award.

SS/