Awards for Iranian Cinema at the End of Cannes 2017

As the Cannes Film Festival reaches its final days, it is gradually announcing its winners, and Iranian cinema managed to have a representative in the first program introducing the winners of various sections of the festival. The short film 'Animal' by Bahman and Bahram Ark won the second prize for Best Film in the Cinéfondation section of the 70th Cannes Festival. The Cinéfondation competitive section is dedicated to student films from around the world, and the winners of this section can benefit from the festival's support programs. The creators of 'Animal' received financial support amounting to 11,250 euros for winning the second prize in this section. The first prize winner also gets the opportunity to showcase their first feature film in future editions of the Cannes Festival. This year, this opportunity was given to Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, an Iranian-American filmmaker, whose first film 'They' was screened in the official Cannes section. She had previously won the first prize in the Cinéfondation section three years ago with her short film 'Needle'. 'Animal' was made with the support of the National School of Cinema around the city of Tabriz and tells the story of a man's struggle to cross the border by deciding to disguise himself as an animal. This 15-minute film, which is dialogue-free, has a surreal atmosphere and a highly professional structure, with its atmosphere and storytelling clearly surpassing similar student films. Cristian Mungiu, a Romanian filmmaker known for acclaimed films like '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' and 'Graduation', led the jury of the Cinéfondation section this year, which included figures like Barry Jenkins, who won this year's Oscar for Best Film for 'Moonlight'. Speculation about the winners of the Palme d'Or peaked on Friday afternoon with the screening of the British filmmaker Lynne Ramsay's film 'You Were Never Really Here', completing the lineup of films in the competition section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, revealing the full picture of this year's contenders for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The 70th Cannes Festival, which had a mediocre start in terms of showcasing attention-grabbing films, heated up in the second half with screenings from directors like Michael Haneke, Sofia Coppola, Sergei Loznitsa, and Fatih Akin, and now, with the end of the competition section screenings, speculation about this year's potential winner has reached its peak. Among the speculations, while Michael Haneke's chances of receiving his third Palme d'Or for the drama 'Happy End' are considered high, the name that appears at the top of most critics' polls is Andrei Zvyagintsev, whose latest film 'Loveless' has captured critics' attention since its screening on the second day of the Cannes Festival. This drama is about parents who, on the verge of separation, are forced to come together again to find their child. Fatih Akin's latest film, 'In the Fade', featuring Diane Kruger, also made a powerful return for this beloved Cannes filmmaker to the festival. The film narrates a terrorist attack by neo-Nazi groups in Hamburg targeting a family with a migrant member. The main character is a German woman who loses her husband and child in this attack and is forced to deal with the repercussions of this event, including an unexpected court ruling regarding the perpetrators of the attack. Another film that garnered attention from critics at Cannes is the comedy-drama 'The Square' by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund. This film, which is somewhat a satire on the art world, is among the critics' favorites this year at Cannes. The filmmaker's previous work, 'Force Majeure', won the Un Certain Regard section prize at Cannes in 2014. The closing ceremony of the 70th Cannes Film Festival will be held on Sunday evening at the festival palace.