Biography

Reza Mirkarimi (Persian: رضا میرکریمی; born 28 January 1967; Tehran) is an Iranian screenwriter and film director. He graduated from Fine Arts University in graphic arts in Tehran. Mirkarimi has won seven Golden Simorgh awards at the Fajr International Film Festival and three of his films, So Close, So Far, A Cube of Sugar, and Today, have been presented by Iran for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. His cinema activities started from 1987 with a short film named For Him (16mm camera) and with a series of shorts followed by two TV series aimed at young people. His first feature film, The Child and The Soldier (1999), won several national and international awards, including the "Golden Butterfly" in 1999 at the Isfahan International Children and Youth Film Festival, Iran and the "Montgolfiere d'Argent” in 2000 at the Festival of 3 Continents, Nantes, France, and the "Golden Shoe" in 2001 at the "Children and Teenagers Film Festival" in Zelin, Croatia. The Child and The Soldier, was released in France in 2001. His second feature, Under the Moonlight (2000), dealing with social and religious issues won the Best Feature Award at the 40th Critics' Week in 2001 at the Cannes International Film Festival. The film also won the Best Director's Award as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo IFF in 2001, and the Golden Peacock Award at the International Film Festival of India. His fourth and fifth feature films, As Simple as That (2007) and Daughter (2016), won the Golden George Award for the Best Picture at the 30th and the 38th Moscow International Film Festival respectively. His film, Castle of Dreams (2019), won at Shanghai International Film Festival, receiving three awards for the best picture, the best director, and the best actor. He has also sat on several international film festival juries, including Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia), Tokyo International Film Festival (Japan), Carthage Film Festival (Tunisia), Bogota International Film Festival (Colombia), Golden Apricot – Yerevan International Film Festival (Armenia), and as jury president at the 39th Moscow International Film Festival. He has also served as managing director of Khane-ye Cinema (Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds). Reza Mirkarimi has been director of Fajr International Film Festival for four consecutive years from 2016 to 2019. He was also Secretary of the International Film Festival of the Fajr Film Festival.