Nominees Finalized for House of Cinema Celebration

The 19th celebration of House of Cinema, which selects the best in Iranian movies released locally in the past year, has announced nominees in various categories.

Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning ‘The Salesman’ and Narges Abyar’s ‘Breath’ lead the list with 10 nominations and are followed by ‘Subdued’ directed by Hamid Nematollah which is nominated in nine categories, the Telegram channel of Cinema Daily reported.

Next in line are Reza Mirakarimi’s ‘Daughter’, Mahammad Hossein Mahdavian’s ‘Midday Adventure’ and Reza Dormishian’s ‘Lantouri’.

An interesting point about the list of candidates, which covers 20 categories, is that there is no mention of two best-seller films of the year and: ‘The Whale 2’ by Saman Moqadam and ‘Patrol 2’ by Saeid Soheili.

Both movies are comedies and grossed 200 billion rials ($5.33 million) in the box-office, shattering all previous records and standing atop Iran’s all-time best-sellers.

Dramas are almost always the focal point of most festivals across the globe. In case of comedies, they are usually very popular with the audience, but not much welcomed in festivals; however, they are sometimes nominated in technical fields.

It has not been so for the two aforementioned films in the upcoming event and they have not been considered worthy of even a sole nomination. This is while two other comedies, which have sold less, have still been nominated in one category each.

The awarding ceremony will be held in Tehran, September 12, which is annually observed as National Day of Cinema in Iran.