TEHRAN – Iranian director Lida Fazli’s acclaimed short “This Side, Other Side” won the award for best film in the 2D and 3D animation category at the Neum Animated Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina, organizers announced on Thursday.

This film shows that no border can prevent the formation of friendships and affection between children, and the director wants the world of adults, like the world of children, to be full of peace and friendship.

The film produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center has been screened at numerous international festivals and won several awards.

The International Animated Film Festival for Children and Young People of Serbia awarded the film its Grand Prize. The festival took place in the town of Sremski Karlovci in November 2020.

It also won the UNICEF Prize at the 15th Bratislava Animation Biennial, an international children’s animated film festival that took place in the Slovak capital in October 2020.

The Neum Animated Film Festival Grand Prize went to “Foreign Exchange” by Corrie Francis Parks from the United States.

Corrie Francis Parks animates sand and other unusual materials, her film asks the question: How much is a handful of sand worth in the vast landscape of the global economy?

Bosnian director Aleta Rajic’s “Natural Selection” won the award for best 2D animation.

British director Robin Heap’s “Flower and the Girl” was selected as Best Terracotta Puppet Animation, while the Visual Arts Prize went to Russian director Roman Burmakov “Krasnoludki”.

Cris Van Beuren won the award for best music composer for his collaboration in the animated film by Mexican director Marcos Almada Rivero “The March of the Missing”.

“Croach” by Agustin Tourino and Matias Deon from Argentina was chosen as the best student film.

The Dusan Vukotic Award, awarded since 2017 in honor of the Oscar winner, went to Serbian director Masha Avramovic for the film “Stuck Together”. This prize is awarded to young authors from the region to encourage them to continue their work.

Photo: “This Side, Other Side” by Iranian director Lida Fazli.

MMS / YAW