‘Kabouk’ enters New Orleans film festival competition
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Sadeghi’s documentary ‘Kabouk’ will compete in the main feature documentary section of the 37th New Orleans Film Festival, scheduled to run from October 21 to 27 in the United States, the Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center announced.
The Iranian production is among 26 feature documentaries selected for this year’s competition, joining a diverse lineup of films from established and emerging documentary filmmakers, ILNA reported.
Produced by the Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center, ‘Kabouk’ tells the story of a family in northern Iran whose peaceful life is disrupted by unexpected visitors in their garden.
The film previously screened at the 19th Cinema Vérité International Documentary Film Festival in Iran, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.
Among the other films in competition are Sam Green’s ‘The Oldest Person in the World,’ which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and Mexican filmmaker Otilia Portillo’s ‘Girls of the Forest’.The latter has earned several awards in 2026, including audience honors at CPH and South by Southwest.
Puerto Rican filmmaker Juan Dávila Santiago will also compete with ‘Zenón and the Rebel Boats,’ which won the award for Best Feature Documentary at the BlackStar Film Festival. Eddie Sánchez’s ‘Mexican-American,’ meanwhile, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival.
Founded in 1989, the New Orleans Film Festival will showcase 175 films selected from nearly 4,000 submissions representing 38 countries. MovieMaker magazine has listed the festival among the world’s notable events for filmmakers and moviegoers.