I Am Neda Official Winner At The WorldFest Houston Film Festival, I Am Neda Wins A Remy Award

April 10, 2012 - PRLog -- The Persepolis Pictures short film I Am Neda is a winner of the WorldFest Houston Film Festival  and receives a prestigious Remy Award. The Festival is celebrating its 45th Anniversary during the week of April 13-22, 2012. I Am Neda will be screening at the AMC Studio 30 Dunvale, Houston, TX on April 19, 8.30pm and again on April 22, 3pm, followed by Q&A with the Directors.

On April 21, is the Awards Gala, where Nicole Kian Sadighi will be presented with the Remy Award for I Am Neda. WorldFest is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two events. Following WorldFest was Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Seattle. Then Sundance and SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca. Now there are more than 2,000 USA film festivals of various types, levels and quality, most being simply non-competitive screening events! WorldFest is international, competitive and invites filmmakers worldwide. After he received the Grand Remi Award in 1985, Ridley Scott commented: “WorldFest is in the business of validating excellence!” The mission of WorldFest is to recognize and validate creative excellence in film & video production in every facet and category of filmmaking. Many filmmakers report that a Remi Award from WorldFest opens doors to advance their careers.

WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 100 new short and student films...from the festival that gave first top honors to Spielberg, Lucas, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Spike Lee, Gavin Hood, John Lee Hancock, Michael Cimino, Steven Poster, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Atom Egoyan and David Lynch, among many others. Few other festivals have such a “discovery” track record. WorldFest has emerged as the oldest continuous film festival management in the world with the same executive director, serving for 44 consecutive years.

Director Kian Sadighi  notes, “Of course it’s always such an honor to be acknowledged for your work as a filmmaker, but I have to say that for me, the WorldFest has to be one of the more special and meaningful film institutions not only because it is one of the earliest and most prestigious of festivals but also because it has discovered so many of the greatest filmmakers of our time, whom I have idolized all my life. WorldFest is truly in a league of its own and words cannot begin to express just how thrilled and honored I am to be a part of this special, first class club. The significance of receiving a Remi Award is very moving. My deepest gratitude to Hunter Todd and Kathleen Haney for believing in a story that the world should never forget.  When an organization such as WorldFest believes in your work, you know you must be doing something right.”

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ABOUT I AM NEDA short film: June 2009 marked another turning point for Iranians, when mass anti-government protests erupted across major cities in Iran, following the June 12 rigged Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which came to be known as the “Green Movement”. These events provoked the Islamic Republic government to declare war on its own people and the world became a witness to some of the most horrific acts that were shown daily through major news outlets, Twitter reports and even YouTube. Many innocent Iranians were, imprisoned, tortured, raped and killed for standing up for their basic human rights in non-violent civil disobedience. This story is centered on the courageous young woman who became the symbol and face of this movement… Neda Agha-Soltan.