We would like to congratulate IDFA on their successful 2021 edition, especially despite the difficulties and uncertainties they faced in just the days leading up to the festival.

We would also like to congratulate Close Up filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi (Letters from Ms. Iran / Close Up 2019-2020) on her selection and work as a juror for the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film. The jury awarded JASON by Maasja Ooms with the honor of Best Dutch Film.

About the jury process, Farahnaz told us, “The selection for the IDFA 2021 IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film reflects a diverse Dutch society nowadays – international productions, filmmakers with various backgrounds with a need to share their stories. It was a great and unique experience for me to be part of this program as a jury member with two lovely colleagues Susanne Guggenberger and Sacha Polak.”

Farahnaz has a lovely history at IDFA, having edited Radiograph of a Family, which won the Best Feature-Length Documentary Award and Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive at last year’s festival. Her amazing short – REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIES OF BAHMAN WHO LOVED LEILA – also screened at IDFA 2012 in the Paradocs section.

This week, Farahnaz will continue on to Berlin to Close Up’s Storytelling Edit Lab to work with us on her upcoming film which participated in Close 2019 / 2020: LETTERS FROM MS. IRAN, co-directed with Leyla Rouhi. We can’t wait to see you in Germany!

Here at Close Up, we are always heartened and happy to see Middle East and North African filmmakers making bold strides and affecting change in the international industry. Keep up the great work!

To read more about Farahnaz’s recent jury work at IDFA and the jury report >>

https://www.idfa.nl/en/info/jury-report-2021-idfa-award-for-best-dutch-film