Bahman Ghobadi

Bahman Ghobadi (Persian: بهمن قبادی; Kurdish: به‌همه‌ن قوبادی, romanized: Behmen Qubadî; born 1 February 1969) is an Iranian Kurdish film director, producer, and writer who belongs to the new wave of Iranian cinema. Born in Baneh, a Kurdish city in Iran, his family moved to Sanandaj in 1981. Ghobadi began his film career after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in film directing from Iran Broadcasting College. He started with industrial photography and later transitioned to making short 8 mm films. His documentary Life in Fog won various awards and he worked as an assistant director on Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us. Ghobadi established Mij Film in 2000; a company dedicated to producing films about different ethnic groups in Iran. His first feature film was A Time for Drunken Horses (2000), the first Kurdish film made in Iran, which won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His films like Marooned in Iraq (2002) and Turtles Can Fly (2004) were also critically acclaimed. Notably, in 2006, Index on Censorship awarded Ghobadi an Index Film Award for his significant contribution to freedom of expression through his film Turtles Can Fly. In addition to his filmmaking career, Ghobadi has been a jury member in many international festivals and is an active supporter of human rights and freedom of speech worldwide. He has also been involved in activism, starting campaigns for freedom of speech and expression.