Noora Niasari has earned yet another accolade for her debut feature 'Shayda', taking home the top prize at Tuesday evening's Australian Directors' Guild Awards.
First-time narrative feature directors Noora Niasari and Gracie Otto will vie against Warwick Thornton, Jeffrey Walker and Colin and Cameron Cairnes for the top prize at the Australian Directors' Guild Awards next month.
When Tehran-born writer-director Noora Niasari told producer Vincent Sheehan about the time she spent living in a women's shelter during her childhood, on which her film 'Shayda' was to be based, he realised he was being told a "distinctly Australian" story, but one he had never seen on the screen before.
Ivan Sen's 'Limbo' and Noora Niasari's 'Shayda' have joined the Australian contingent bound for this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), announced as part of the event's centrepiece program.
Noora Niasari talks to IF about the making of her debut feature, the Sundance Audience Award-winning 'Shayda', which is screening in competition at MIFF and will close Locarno later this month.
Noora Niasari’s 'Shayda' follows a young Iranian mother (Amir-Ebrahimi) who finds refuge with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowrooz) in 1995.
The full line-up for this year's Melbourne International Film Festival was revealed Tuesday evening, with a significant number of Australian additions, such as the world premieres of Jason Raftopoulos' sophomore feature 'Voices in Deep' and Matthew Adekponya's behind-the-scenes look at how the Boomers took bronze in Tokyo, 'Rose Gold'.
An award-winning Sundance selection and a documentary portrait of an Australian music icon will screen as gala films at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival.