Reza Mirkarimi’s “Today” picked as Iran’s foreign Oscar entrySeptember 22, 2014 - 13:41 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran has returned to the foreign-language Academy Award race with the selection of Reza Mirkarimi’s “Today” (Emrooz) as its contender, Variety reported. The picture is the story of a Tehran taxi driver who becomes the protector of a pregnant woman after he rushes her to hospital. The announcement was made by committee spokesman Amir Esfandiari on Sunday, Iran’s official Fars News Agency reported. The film, which recently played at the Toronto festival, stars Parviz Parastui, Soheila Golestani and Shabnam Moghadami. Last year Iran selected Mirkarimi’s “A Cube of Sugar” as its hopeful for the foreign-language Oscar, but withdrew the film in protest against the film “The Innocence of Muslims” which the Iranian government said denigrated the Prophet Mohammad. The previous year Iranian film “A Separation” by Asghar Farhadi won the prize. Mirkarimi previously directed “Under the Moonlight,” which won the Critics’ Week Grand Prix at Cannes in 2001, “Here, A Shining Light” (2002), “So Close- So Far” (2005), and “As Simple as That” (2007). Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. U.S. welcomes efforts to define Armenia-Azerbaijan border The United States welcomes efforts to define the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says Vedant Patel. Biden honors resilience of Armenian people on April 24 U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a statement on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. |