Iran chooses award-winning ‘World War III’ as Oscars entry

TEHRAN

Iran has selected the thriller “World War III”, which won two awards at the Venice Film Festival this month, as its Oscar entry for the Academy Awards in 2023.

The Farabi Cinema Foundation, which has almost exclusively selected the country’s Oscar picks since 1994, announced the choice on Sept. 19. “After viewing 75 films, the selection committee unanimously chose ’World War III’ to represent Iranian cinema,” it said in a statement.

Directed by Houman Seyyedi, 41, it won both the best film and best actor award at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in its Orizzonti section of the festival, which provides a platform for world cinema.

Seyyedi, who is also an actor and screenwriter, won the award for best performance and best screenplay at Tehran’s Fajr Festival in 2014 and 2017.

The film tells the story of Shakib, played by actor Mohsen Tanabandeh, a homeless worker who becomes an actor in a movie about the atrocities committed by German dictator Adolf Hitler.