Majid Majidi's 'Sun Children' is Iran's official Oscar 2021 entry
Veteran Iranian film director Majid Majidi is representing his country in the Oscar race through his recent film Sun Children. The child labor drama has been selected to be Iran's official entry to compete in the 93rd Academy Awards, which is slated to take place on April 25, 2021. The film is scheduled to compete in the Best International Feature Film category.
The delegation representing Iranian cinema for Oscar chose Sun Children out of 90 films after contenders Walnut Tree by Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian and Yalda: A Night For Forgiveness by Masud Bakhshi failed to make the impression. It consisted of Iranian directors Mohammad-Ali Najafi, Kamal Tabrizi and Narges Abyar, cinematographer Seyyed Mohammad Davudi, producer Seyyed Jamal Sadatian, screenwriter Farhad Tohidi and critic Antonio Shoraka this year.
Sun Children revolves around the adventurous yet struggling life of 12-year-old boy Ali and his three friends. Stooped in poverty, the kids manage to make both ends meet by running petty errands for others and often committing small crimes. However, their life changes when Ali is chosen to uncover a hidden underground treasure with the rider of enrolling themselves into the Sun school.
Majidi's film has received accolades earlier too. The film premiered this February at the 38th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran and won Crystal Simorghs in the set design, script and set design categories. The drama also had its world premiere at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September, where actor Ruhollah Zamani, who plays Ali, bagged the Marcello Mastroianni Award for his performance.
The 61-year-old ace filmmaker also received the Lanterna Magica Award at the festival. The 8th Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar will also open with screening Sun Children on November 18. This is Majidi's seventh Oscar film submission. Some of his earlier films selected for Oscar include Children of Heaven (1998) and The Color of Paradise (1999), of which the first was nominated.
