TEHRAN- Iranian filmmaker Yousef Kargar’s “Psalms of Sorrow” won the Grand Prix of the 43rd Tehran International Short Film Festival, receiving the Golden Leaf and a $3,000 cash prize at the closing ceremony in Tehran on Thursday.
The ceremony was held at Milad Tower on October 22, with the festival’s awards presented in the presence of filmmakers, cinema officials and media representatives. The event was attended by Raed Faridzadeh, head of the Cinema Organization of Iran, and festival director Behrouz Shoeibi, and several other cultural officials and artists.
In the international competition, Danish filmmaker Mikkel Bjørn Kehlert won Best Fiction Film for “Måske i marts” (“Maybe in March”).
Kiana Naghshineh received the award for Best Animation for “Im Auto Tapes und Butterbrot,” representing Germany, while Chilean filmmaker Niels Atallah won Best Experimental Film for “Merrimundi.” Iranian filmmaker Seifollah Samadian received an honorable mention in documentary section for “That Day and Night, the Same Day.”
Afghan filmmaker Elham Ehsas won the Best AI Film award for “Forgotten Spaceman,” while Hooman Mahmoudi received the Emerging Horizons Special Award for his Iranian film “Bi Dar Koja”. Russian filmmaker Alexandra Sokolovskaya received an honorary diploma for Best Fiction Film in the international competition for “The Sun Fell and Rolled Away.”
The international category winners received Golden Leaves and cash prizes, with $1,000 awarded in the main categories and $500 for the Emerging Horizons special award.
In a video message screened at the ceremony, Culture Minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi praised short cinema for bringing together diverse narratives, styles and genres. Referring to this year’s festival slogan, “Iranian Thought; Global Narration,” he said Iranian short films had taken significant steps toward communicating local experiences to international audiences, despite the difficulties facing the country.
In the national fiction competition, Marjan Ashrafizadeh won Best Director for “Goreh,” which also received the Golden Leaf for Best Film in the Iranian Cinema section. The audience award went to “Adam,” which received a Golden Plaque and 400 million rials.
Other major national awards included Best Screenplay for Sima Rasouli and Abolfazl Azizi for “Injury”, and the jury’s special award for Panah Alvani’s “Japanese”. Ali Baqeri won Best Actor for “Ghasameh,” while Narges Hezareh received an honorary diploma for her performance in “Bi Dar Koja.”
In the animation category, Malek Eqbali won the Golden Leaf for “Like a Friend, Like a Deer.” Habib Alvani received the award for Best Documentary for “Ehtezar,” while Mohammad Sina Heidarizadeh won the Golden Leaf in the adapted-film category for “A Cat in the Snow.” Milad Shahjani was recognized for documentary research for “The Song of the Sword Behind Glass Trenches.”
The 43rd edition of the festival ran from October 17 to 22, bringing together Iranian and international filmmakers in fiction, documentary, experimental and animation competitions. The event is among the region’s established short-film platforms and provides a venue for emerging filmmakers to present their work to audiences and industry professionals.
Photo: Iranian filmmaker Yousef Kargar holds the Grand Prix award at the closing ceremony of the 43rd Tehran International Short Film Festival at Milad Tower in Tehran on October 22, 2026. His film “Psalms of Sorrow” won the festival’s top prize.
SAB/
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