This film will be screened as part of our short film competition on Tuesday 17 October at 7.30pm and Wednesday 18 October at 8pm.
Stills
This film will be screened as part of our short film competition on Tuesday 17 October at 7.30pm and Wednesday 18 October at 8pm.
Born in 1981 in Shiraz, Iran, Ali Zare Ghanatnowi is a film producer and director. Active since the early 2000s, he has been involved in more than twenty films, including animated films and documentaries. He has received critical acclaim for his work on "Empty View" (2017), which was nominated in over thirty international festivals and received the Los Angeles Film Award and the Amsterdam Film Festival Award. He also gained recognition for "Dad's Fragile Doll" (2013), which won the Best Animation award at the International Open Film Festival (IOFF) and the Veterans Film Festival, as well as at London-X4. Ali's films "The Lights" and "Sistan Itinerary" were nominated at the International Documentary Film Festival CINEMA VERITE. In 2004, he founded the Cinema School in Shiraz, where he teaches screenplay writing, directing, film theory, and film criticism. He extends his artistic practice to writing and illustration while advocating for freedom and opposing censorship. Forced to leave Iran in 2019, he became a member of the Artists in Exile workshop in 2021. Alongside Judith Depaule, he participated in the Mnemonic installation project presented at the Avignon Festival in 2022. In 2023, he showcases his illustrations and animated films in a solo exhibition at the Martigues Mediatheque. In the same year, he directed the short film "La Grenade Noire," which has been selected in numerous international festivals, including the Cinema for Human Rights festival organized by Human Rights Watch and the Light Film Festival organized by Amazon Prime.
