Three Iranians won awards at the 20th “Altyn Minbar” Kazan International Film Festival, which was held in Russia last week.

An actress, a filmmaker, and a screenwriter from Iran were among the winners of this year’s edition of the Russian festival, IRNA reported.

For playing the lead role in the film “Gazelle,” actress Sepideh Arman won the best in performing skills together with the actor Ulmas Oraev from Uzbekistan.

Directed by Houshang Golmakani, “Gazelle” is the story of the self-inflicted isolation of a girl who sees her dreams in vain but has not lost her hope yet.

“Paper Flowers” by Ramak Amin Kazemi won the short animation award. Produced by the Documentary, Experimental, and Animation Cinema Development Center, the 17-minute animated film narrates the internal transformations of a successful female writer who experiences a setback in one of her works. To overcome this failure, she leaves her home and family, seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion to focus on writing her new work.

However, the festival's events were not limited to just film showings. The Kazan State Institute of Culture hosted an International Pitching of Film Projects. The winner was a screenwriter from Iran, Javid Sobhani with the project “White Horse”. 

Sobhani received 500,000 rubles ($5,500) to shoot the film. The plot of the future film is tied to the story of a young Moscow journalist who tries to uncover the secret of her mother's marriage to a Tatar of Iranian origin.

The festival was held in Kazan from September 6 to 11. The Iranian drama “In the Arms of a Tree” directed by Babak Khajehpashа was the opening film of the festival.

The event's motto was “Through the dialogue of cultures to the culture of dialogue,” calling on the entire world in the language of cinema to friendship and cooperation between representatives of all nationalities and religions. 

The festival brought together filmmakers from 40 countries, and more than 140 films were shown to the audience. The film festival was held with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, in partnership with the Group of Strategic Vision “Russia - Islamic World”.