Modern Films has picked up the UK entry for the Oscars’ international feature film category, Winners, for UK-Ireland distribution.
It is written and directed by Aberdeen-based Iranian director Hassan Nazer, and produced by Scotland’s Paul Welsh of Edge City Films and Nadira Murray of Sylph Productions, with backing from Screen Scotland.
The drama, shot entirely in Iran using Farsi dialogue, premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it won the audience award, ahead of clinching the best UK feature prize at Raindance. It boasts two Bifa nominations, including breakthrough producer for Murray, and the Raindance discovery award for Nazer, Murray and Welsh.
The deal was negotiated directly between the social issues-driven film distribution company Modern Films and the feature’s producers, with a release planned for early 2023.
LA and Paris-based sales agent Other Angle Pictures is repping Winners for international sales.
Winners is set in a small Iranian village where two kids go on an adventure to find the owner of a gold statuette they’ve discovered. Reza Naji, Hossein Abedini, Parsa Maghami, Malalai Zikria, Mahmoud Jafari and Leyla Mohammadkhani star.
It is Nazer’s first feature backed by the UK industry, after arriving in Scotland from Iran as a refugee in 2000. His previous credits include 2011’s Black Day and 2013’s We’re All Sinner.
The producers Murray and Welsh said of Modern Films: “Their taste and enthusiasm for world cinema is unquestionable so this feels like a great home for our film in the UK.”
Modern Films’ Eve Gabereau added: “It is great to be working with Paul Welsh again after so many years since our great experience on Skeletons, and with this film team who are both cineastes and mavericks.”
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