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Majidi wins special honor at Eurasia Int’l Film Festival in Moscow
Nikita Mikhalkov, the veteran Russian director and founder of the Eurasia Film Academy, handed Majidi the crystal-cut statuette in a packed hall that included Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and Iran’s ambassador Kazem Jalali, Fars News Agency reported.
Before the award, the festival rolled a curated reel from Majidi’s works, including his historical epic ‘Muhammad (PBUH)’, underscored by Iranian music. The audience rose to its feet for several minutes.
Majidi, who built his international reputation on stories anchored in childhood and moral struggle, returned to that theme on stage. He spoke of his long commitment to portraying children with dignity and paused to honor the “innocent children of Gaza”, saying he hoped war-hit youngsters everywhere would find a path to peace.
China clinched the festival’s top prize. Xu Zheng’s drama ‘Against the Current’ took Best Film along with a $1 million award, a sizeable purse for a debut festival but one Mikhalkov said was intended to “set the bar high” for future editions. Winners in the other categories collected $250,000 each.
Seventeen countries submitted 34 films to the festival’s first run, with organizers pitching the event as a new Eurasian platform for ethical storytelling and cultural exchange.
Entries ranged from Russia and Serbia to South Africa and Pakistan, with some titles shooting for gritty realism and others leaning on spiritual or historical narratives.
Iran entered three titles, ‘Call Me Ziba’, ‘In the Arms of the Tree’ and ‘My Daughter’s Hair’, continuing the country’s long-standing push to keep its art-house cinema visible on the international circuit.
By the end of the night, Mikhalkov called the “Diamond Butterfly” a symbol of a broader cultural pact he hopes to forge among Eurasian filmmakers. Whether the festival grows into the “Eurasian Oscars” he envisions remains to be seen, but the debut edition closed with a flourish, and Majidi at its center.