Film Threat website has named the short film ‘Funfair’ by Iranian director Kaveh Mazaheri as one of the four qualified films from Canada hoping to compete in the 93rd Academy Awards to be held in April.
“There are few shortcuts in life. But finding one is half the fun in the Iranian short film, ‘Funfair’, written by him and Sepinood Najian. Our story opens with Sarah (Sonia Sanjari) standing deadly still at a busy intersection. Her husband, Majid (Soroush Saeidi), is concerned about why she froze, but Sarah insists there’s nothing wrong and that she’s merely scared,” filmthreat.com wrote.
“Later we find that their son, Artin (Artin Rabiei), wants to go to the wondrous playground known as Funfair. Majid, though, has squandered the family’s fortune, and they are deeply in debt. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Majid has a plan, and it’s a simple one. All Sarah has to do is jump in front of a car — preferably a luxury one — and claim the insurance money for her injuries. The duo practice crashing into a moving dumpster in a back alley, but Sarah cannot make it look convincing, so dad has Artin help push his mother in the way.”
The film has a pretty simple setup, and much of the story is the tension created by Sarah’s hesitance to go through with the scam and Majid’s assurances it won’t be that bad, and it will solve all their financial problems, according to Film Threat.
“Overall, ‘Funfair’ plays out, as you’d expect, in a humorous fashion and is a strangely odd tale of family. Also, that last little button at the end is a doozy; well worth hanging around to the final second.”
Short films have been a way for independent filmmakers to taste the fame and notoriety associated with the Oscars.
Each year, five live-action and five animated shorts are chosen to participate in the annual ceremony. Thousands of short films are winnowed down to hundreds by appearing at film festivals throughout the year, including HollyShorts and the Palm Springs Shorts Festival.
The website listed the other three Canadian short films as ‘Pick’ by Alicia K. Harris, ‘Cake Day’ by Phillip Thomas and Simon Gionet’s Cayenne.
‘The Sun’
In a report published on Thursday, Variety magazine included Iranian feature ‘The Sun’, also known as ‘Sun Children’, directed by Majid Majidi in its list of international films having the chance to shine at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021.
The best international feature race is always a question mark, but you can read the tea leaves on in many films, according to variety.com.
The Variety list’s first top 10 films are: ‘Another Round’ by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark), ‘I’m No Longer Here’ by Fernando Frias (Mexico), ‘Two of Us’ by Filippo Meneghetti (France), ‘My Little Sister’ by Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond (Switzerland), ‘Night of the Kings’ by Philippe Lacote (Ivory Coast), ‘Dear Comrades!’ by Andrey Konchalovskiy (Russia), ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ by Jasmila Zbanic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), ‘A Sun’ by Chung Mong-hong (Taiwan), ‘The Sun’ by Majidi (Iran) and ‘Charlatan’ by Agnieszka Holland (the Czech Republic).
‘The Sun’ is about a 12-year-old boy named Ali and his three friends who do small jobs and petty crimes to survive and support their families, according to Mehr News Agency.
In a timely turn of events, Ali is entrusted to find a hidden underground treasure. However, in order to gain access to the tunnel where the treasure is buried, Ali and his gang have to first enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers.
The film was very well received by critics at the 38th edition of Fajr Film Festival held in Tehran in February 2020 and won several awards such as the best screenplay and best film prizes. The cast include Ali Nasirian, Javad Ezzati and Tanaz Tabatabai.
The film has won the Magic Lantern award at 77th Venice Film Festival in Italy.
Rouhollah Zamani, an actor of the film, won Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice International Film Festival.
‘The Sun’ has been screened at the Rome International Film Festival in Italy and was selected to be screened at the inauguration ceremony of the eighth edition of the Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar.
The film has been selected to represent Iran in the best foreign-language film category of the Oscars.
Majidi has an Oscar history of three nominations, two wins and 25 submissions. His feature ‘The Sun’ is the ninth film on Variety’s list.