Highly acclaimed family drama ‘Melbourne’ has won top prizes at the 52nd Gijon International Film Festival in Spain, while actress Negar Jevaharian, playing a young wife to ‘A Separation’ lead actor Peyman Moaadi also scooped the Silver Astor Award for Best Actress in the International Competition of the 29th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Argentina.
The Iranian film, directed by Nima Javidi, bagged the Best Director, Best Script and the Young Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at the Spanish festival held from Nov 21-29. The Argentinean festival was also held simultaneously.
‘Melbourne’ is about a young Iranian couple’s decision to move to the Australian city from their hometown, which is abruptly halted when tragedy befalls their household; in the hustle and bustle of preparing for the trip, they neglect to take care of a baby in their charge, leading to the baby’s death.
Javidi’s debut feature film was inspired from his personal experience; “Five or six years ago, I was with friends on a vacation in the mountains and I was left alone with a baby. At some point, I noticed that it was still. I panicked, but thankfully in the end everything was alright. Then I imagined what would have happened if something had gone wrong and that’s how I wrote the story.”
The film recently won the Golden Pyramid Prize for Best Film at the 36th Cairo International Film Festival, and the Best Script prize at the 25th Stockholm Film Festival.
The movie’s international premiere was at the Critics’ Week section of this year’s Venice film festival, Italy. The movie has since participated in the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival, the 10th Zurich Film Festival, and the 16th International Film Festival Bratislava, Slovakia.
