Filmmaker Behnam Behzadi in Swedish Festival Jury

Iranian filmmaker Behnam Behzadi will be among the jury of the 40th Goteborg Film Festival in Sweden slated for January 27-February 6.

Behzadi will be a juror in the international section that will decide the winner of the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award, ISNA reported.

The award was established in collaboration with the renowned Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who was honorary president of the festival until his death in 2007. It is awarded to new talent in international filmmaking. The competing entries are the director’s first or second feature film.

Behzadi’s last film ‘Inversion’, which was debuted in the Un Certain Regard Section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May, will also be screened in the out of competition section.

Well received in Cannes, the film has been screened in other international film events across the globe. It is currently on screen in Iranian cinemas.

Behzadi, 44, is also the film’s scriptwriter and producer. He has made more than 20 films including features, shorts, TV movies and documentaries, some of which have won awards at international festivals. 

His previous film, ‘Bending the Rules’ won awards in Japan, France and Germany. He teaches cinema at Tehran University of Art and has published many related articles.

Other Iranian Films

In addition to ‘Inversion’, ‘Parting’, ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami’,  ‘Take Me Home’ and ‘Women’s Prison’ are other Iranian productions which will be screened in different sections of the festival.

Made by the late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s close friend Seifollah Samadian, ‘76 Minutes ...’ and Kiarostami’s last film ‘Take Me Home’ will be shown at the Master section of the festival.

‘Women’s Prison’ by Manijeh Hekmat is also scheduled to be screened in the Commemorative Retrospective section.

Goteborg Film Festival is an annual event in Gothenburg, and the largest film event in Scandinavia. In recent years, around 450 films from over 60 countries have been screened for an estimated 115,000 visitors.