Tehran – Nazanin Chitzaz’s Iranian short film Damji won an award at the ongoing Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & Asia) in Tokyo, Japan.
SSFF & Asia, one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals, recognized by the US Academy Awards®, announced Save the Earth on Thursday! The Minister of the Environment Award was sent to “Damji.” This focuses on global warming, Irna reported.
This award is given to the film that best conveys the message about environmental issues of all the films selected for competition.
The 2024 production drama is about a child who is unknown to others. The film will be available at the festival’s online venue starting June 12th.
In Iran’s drought-hitting land, children naturally adopt water-saving habits in their daily lives, and their behavior gradually spreads to others. This beautifully illustrates the concept of the “butterfly effect” in which small individual efforts lead to great change and hope. The film effectively conveys environmental awareness within just two minutes through the children’s true actions. This is a very admirable point.
“The film appears to portray a world of water depletion and lake disappearance related to global warming. It strongly conveys the magnitude of the impacts caused by climate change and encourages people to rethink the value of water wasted in everyday life without much thought. The ministry views climate change as an important issue that must be addressed through international cooperation, and hopes that each viewer who receives the message through this film will be encouraged to take action on the issue of climate change,” the Minister of the Environment commented on the film.
Born in Isfahan, 31 years old, Nazanin Chizzaz holds a master’s degree in dramatic literature from Azad University, Tehran. She has directed five short fiction films since 2016.
On receiving the award, she said: “I am deeply honored to receive the Minister of Earth Award from the Japan Ministry of the Environment at the Shorts Shorts Film Festival and Asia. I will protect the Earth.”
“This special award means a lot to me. I encourage cinemas to continue to tell important stories and to use them as a powerful tool to raise awareness about the environment. I sincerely hope that one day I will be able to live on a green, safe and peaceful planet,” she added.
SSFF & Asia established the “Stop Global Warming Race” in 2008 in cooperation with the “Challenge 25 Campaign,” a national campaign to prevent global warming. In 2013, it was reborn as “Saving the Planet!” Since 2020, the festival has expanded its “Save the Planet!” Awards for inclusion of more diverse global issues with the aim of communicating the diversity of environmental issues across the planet.
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia is the Academy Award® Qualifying Festival. The festival will receive the Best Short Award winners in live-action, animation and non-fiction competitions and will be nominated in the Academy Awards® short film category the following year.
The festival was founded in 1999 as the Shorts Shorts Film Festival (SSFF), and since 2004, SSFF acquired a program dedicated to Asian short films and with the support of the Tokyo Governor, it established Asia, the Shorts Film Festival. Currently, the combination of the two festivals takes place annually in Tokyo as the Shorts Film Festival & Asia, one of Asia’s largest short film festivals.
Photo: Screenshot from “Damji”
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