The year 2008 brought the FIPRESCI Prize for Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) and the SIGNIS Award – Honorable Mention for Amir Naderi (Vegas: Based on a True Story), while 2009 was a good year for Shirin Neshat (Golden Osella for the Best Director) and Abdolreza Kahani (Special Jury Prize). Accolades continued to follow throughout the next decade, with Shahram Mokri’s Special Orizzonti Jury Prize in 2013, Rakhshan Bani Etemad’s Best Screenplay Award in 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour’s Special Jury Prize in 2016, Vahid Jalilvand’s Orizzonti Award for Best Director in 2017, and Navid Mohammadzadeh’s Orizzonti Award for Best Actor, also in 2017. Apart from awards, the festival’s coveted Jaeger-LeCoultre partnership, given to filmmakers that bring great innovation to contemporary cinema, has also been offered to Iranian influencers such as Abbas Kiarostami (2007) and Amir Naderi (2016).

While Iran’s cinematic journey continues to grow, Farsi-speaking cinema in countries such as Afghanistan is still reeling under various pressures. The 76th Venice International Film Festival’s lineup, however, includes Sahraa Karimi’s Hava, Maryam, Ayesha in the Orizzonti category. The film, set in war-torn Afghanistan, chronicles the life of three Afghan women from different social backgrounds. It’s an important milestone in the history of Afghan cinema because it focuses on the war stories of women, a relatively marginalized section in terms of representation. Sahraa Karimi’s radical cinema is not the only aide in her shattering of the glass ceiling; she was also recently appointed as the first female General Director of Afghan Film, the country’s state-run film production company. In a recent interview, she reflected on the lack of recognition for Afghan films at major festivals ― “War has affected Afghanistan’s cinema in terms of production, but our films can be very rich in terms of content because our country is full of colorful stories.” The organization’s President, filmmaker Abdul Latif Ahmadi, also mused that “Afghanistan cinema’s problems are multidimensional. For instance, there is no budget, there is no encouragement and also government, especially the Information and Culture Ministry, have no cooperation and artists have been separated.” Despite these challenges, Afghanistan has managed to create cinema that will be showcased at the festival.

Afghanistan-Bangladesh co-production Roqaia, directed by Afghan filmmaker Diana Saqeb Jamal, has also been selected in the festival’s Orizzonti segment, an international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema. The film features Afghan actors Roqia Rasuli, Asadullah Rasuli, Gavhar Taj Salmanian, and Qorban Ali Salmanian in major roles.