TEHRAN-Iranian short film “Sampo” written and directed by Marzieh Riahi has won an award at the 27th Malaga Film Festival in Malaga, Spain.

The film grabbed the Biznaga de Plata Award for Best Fiction in the Affirming Women's Rights section of the festival, ISNA reported.

A typical Malaga summer flower, biznaga is one of the symbols of the city of Malaga. The meaning of the biznaga comes from the Arabic period (Al-Andalus) and means “gift of God”. The biznaga is also the main award of the Malaga Film Festival. Every year, the winners of various sections at the festival are awarded with a biznaga figurine made of silver or gold.

On Wednesday, the Malaga Festival held the awards ceremony for the Affirming Women's Rights section. The event brought together the winners of the section, as well as the winners at the Women in Film, who also received their awards.

As Riahi was not present at the event, the award was collected on behalf of the director by the young Iranian scientist Shiva Shirani, a post-doctoral researcher in ‪X-ray Imaging‬ at the University of Malaga.‬

A friend of the film director, Shirani read Riahi’s message to the audience after receiving the award, in which she appreciated the festival organizers and jury’s selection and expressed joy over winning the first award for “Sampo” from the Affirming Women's Rights section of the Malaga Film Festival as a majority of the cast and crew of the film are women.

Offering congratulations on the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8, in the message, Riahi added: “I hope to witness the gradual strengthening of women's position in the realm of world cinema”.

A production of 2023, the 13-minute flick shows a girl and her mother, a single worker, who reside in a low-income area of ​​Tehran. The girl constantly wishes that her mother would get a job at the memorial service, where the employees are treated kindlier.

Linda Kiani, Maryam Boubani, Hilda Kordbacheh, and Hannan Azizi comprise the cast of “Sampo,” which has so far, been screened at several film festivals in Canada, the US, Australia, Sri Lanka, and Bulgaria.

A graduate in film direction from the Iranian Youth Film Society (IYCS), Riahi is the editor-in-chief of Short Film News, Asia's first website specializing in short films and documentaries. Her first short film, “Driving Lessons,” was nominated for an Oscar in 2020. She is a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian and Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) and a member of the Iranian Film Writers and Critics Association (ISFCW). 

Affirming Women's Rights is a project that has emerged from the festival, Mabel Lozano (documentary filmmaker and collaborator in the festival), and the Equal Opportunities Area of Malaga City Council as a protest tool. The section seeks to explore and deal with issues that contribute to social awareness of women's rights each year.

This section was born in 2008. The project is conceived with a double purpose: to inform about the injustices that women still suffer in this century for the mere fact of being women and to encourage and support the cinematographic work created by women.

The Malaga Film Festival was founded in 1998. In each of its editions, it has sought to achieve a series of objectives, among which favoring the dissemination and promotion of Spanish cinema, becoming a national and international reference in the field of cinema, and contributing to the development of Malaga as an open and cultural city.

The festival contributes powerfully to the development of cinema in Spanish by presenting its best documentaries, short films, etc., in addition to paying tribute to different personalities from the film industry and organizing numerous cycles, exhibitions, and parallel activities.  A broad panorama of cinematographic culture is what the Malaga Festival wants to present and promote, so it always pays attention to training, creativity, and innovation, framed in an activity that stands out for its dynamic character in continuous evolution and transformation.

This year’s edition of the festival started on March 1 and will conclude on March 10, awarding the winners of the main competition section. 

SS/SAB