Armenia Sending Anahid Abad’s ‘Yeva’ to Oscar

The feature film ‘Yeva,’ written and directed by Iranian-Armenian filmmaker Anahid Abad, 55, has been selected as Armenia’s official submission to the 90th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Funded by Iranian cinema producer Taqi Aliqolizadeh, the film is a joint 2017 production between the two countries, Mehr News Agency reported.

The film is about a young woman named Yeva who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband’s tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages in the disputed Caucasian enclave of Karabakh.

A 94-minute drama, ‘Yeva’ is set in Armenia with an Armenian cast, namely Narina Grigorian, Shant Hovhanisian, Sergay Tovmasian, Vrejh Kasoni, Marjan Avadisyan, Roz Avadisova, Digran Davtian, Nanor Patrosian, Avalian Adamian and Marat Davtian.

As for Iran, the representing film is ‘Breath,’ written and directed by Narges Abyar. It received the award of the best film with a ‘National View’ at the 34th Fajr Film Festival in 2016, had a successful screening at home last year, collected positive reviews by critics and was welcomed by the public.

‘Breath’ is a story about a young, imaginative and joyful girl ‘Bahar’ as she grows up in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

So far 83 countries have submitted their selected films to the Oscars. The deadline for submissions is October 2 and the academy will announce a list of eligible films at a later date.

From the long list, nine finalists from among the dozens of entries will be shortlisted late this year, with the final five nominees to be announced in early 2018.

Last year, a record 89 countries submitted films to the academy.

Iran’s renowned filmmaker Asghar Farhadi won the award for ‘The Salesman’ at the Oscars on February 26. That was his and Iran’s second Oscar after ‘A Separation’ in 2011.