TEHRAN – World-renowned Iranian film director Majid Majidi received an award for outstanding contributions to cinema at the first Diamond Butterfly Open Eurasian Film Awards held on November 27 in Moscow, Russia.
According to IRNA, the ceremony for the event took place on Thursday night at the Nikita Mikhalkov Workshop 12 Theater in Moscow, with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, Presidential Advisor Vladimir Medinsky, Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali and others in attendance.
Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov awarded Majdi the festival’s “Diamond Butterfly” honor and praised his body of work.
Before the awards were presented, scenes from Majidi’s films such as “Muhammad (PBUH), Messenger of God” were shown in the hall to Iranian music. After the screening, there was a one-minute standing ovation.
In his acceptance speech, Majidi emphasized his long-standing focus on children, paid tribute to the “innocent children of Gaza” and expressed his hope for peace for all children affected by war.
Majid Majidi, 66, touches on many themes and genres in his films and has won numerous international awards. He brought Iranian cinema to the attention of moviegoers around the world.
His film “Children of Heaven” (1997), the story of two children who share a pair of shoes, became the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the foreign language film category. Iranian films rose to prominence in Hollywood after the nomination, demonstrating their ability to touch universal audiences with stories of poverty, dignity, and love.
Majidi went on to direct films such as The Colors of Paradise (1999) and Balan (2001), which won top awards at film festivals from Montreal to Moscow.
The main objective of the Diamond Butterfly Open Eurasian Film Awards is to remind the world of the true mission of cinema, which puts commercial success behind it and addresses values, culture and universal essence. The Eurasian Film Awards are open to all countries that strive to preserve traditional values and respect their own culture.
The Eurasian Film Awards, a new international film award established by the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Russian Cultural Foundation and the Eurasian Academy of Cinematic Arts, is already being compared to the Oscars in terms of its scale and importance.
The event aims to promote films with traditional, spiritual and moral values that bring people together, and the main prize is a diamond-encrusted butterfly statue designed by Yuri Kuper.
The inaugural awards ceremony saw the participation of 34 films from 17 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, providing a diverse and vibrant global platform for film exchange.
Films from countries with shared cultural and spiritual traditions participated in the competition, including Russia, Iran, China, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Senegal, South Africa, Pakistan, Belarus, Indonesia and Vietnam.
SS/SAB