Mania Akbari

Mania Akbari (, born 1974) is an Iranian filmmaker, artist, writer, and curator whose works explore women's rights, marriage, sexual identity, disease and body image. Her style, in contrast to the long tradition of melodrama in Iranian cinema, is rooted in the visual arts and autobiography. Because of the taboo themes frankly discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, she is considered one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran.

From 2007 to 2010, Akbari worked on numerous photography-based works that were featured in various galleries around the world, while she kept making documentary and fiction films until 2011, when during production of her film, From Tehran to London, members of her crew were arrested by Iranian authorities for filming without official permission. Scared she too might be imprisoned, Akbari fled Tehran for London.

Since settling in London, various international retrospectives of Akbari's films have drawn attention to her cinema, among which retrospectives at the BFI, the Oldenburg International Film Festival and the Danish Film Institute are the most notable.

Mania Akbari founded the online art platform Cryptofiction in 2020.

Early life and education Mania Akbari was born in 1974 in Tehran, Iran.

Career Akbari's artistic activities, as a painter, started in 1991 when she took part in various exhibitions in Iran, as well as abroad. She was later exposed to cinema, working as a cinematographer and assistant director on documentary films. The following year, Akbari directed her debut film, a short documentary called Crystal. In 2004, she wrote, acted in and directed her first feature-length film, 20 Fingers, which won best film in the Venice Film Festival's Digital Cinema section.

Akbari's first feature-length film 20 Fingers (2004), a study of marriage and sexual identity, was screened in more than 40 film festivals around the world.

Between 2004 and 2007, she made six video art pieces entitled Self, Repression, Sin, Escape, Fear, and Destruction, which were shown in numerous film festivals such as Locarno Film Festival and exhibited at museums such as the Tate Modern. This film has also been screened in many international museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In 2010, Akbari made a documentary about capital punishment and the execution of Behnoud Shojaee, titled 30 Minutes To 6. Although after the disputed 2009 election, the filmmaking conditions in Iran were becoming more closed and controlled, she decided to make One. Two. One, her third feature-length film, there. In the same year, she started working on her next film, originally to have been called "Women Do Not Have Breasts". During the making of this film, numerous filmmakers were arrested in Iran, and since she opposed the State-imposed limitations on expression, she left Iran for London and finished the film under the new title of From Tehran to London.

In 2019, Akbari released a second epistolary essay film, A Moon for My Father, co-directed with the sculptor Douglas White, which one critic praised as "a form of digressive-poetic cinema, connecting images and ideas in a dream-associative logic".

Akbari directed Dear Elnaz (2020), a documentary about a person who was killed as a passenger on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.

Akbari made the film How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish, released in 2022, with clips of women in Iranian popular cinema from before the revolution.

Akbari has also curated several film programs.

Cinematic style Akbari's filmmaking style consists of long takes, hand-held camera and almost painterly control of colour which is called "a cross between fiction and documentary."

Reception Akbari's work has been described as "remarkably fresh, audacious and relevant."

Akbari's selections were:

Yek ettefāq-e sāde (1973) Ṭabiʿat-e bijān (1974) Sans Soleil (1983) Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) No Home Movie (2015) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) What Do Men Want? (1921) Sieranevada (2016) Girl of Mystery (1914) Disque 957 (1996)

Awards Winner of the best feature film in Venezia Cinema Digital Section for 20 Fingers. The grand jury prize for the spirit of freedom at the Bahamas International Film Festival. Best director and best actress prizes for 20 Fingers at the Digital International Barcelona Film Festival. Winner of the Most Innovative film Award for 20 Fingers at the Wine Country International Film Festival. Winner of the best film and best director awards for 10+4 at the Kerala International Film Festival. Winner of the best film for 10+4 in L'Alternativa, Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona. Winner of the Don Quixote Award for Life May Be at the Fribourg International Film Festival. Winner of the FIPRESCI prize for A Moon for My Father at the Ankara Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival. Winner of NEW:VISION award for A Moon for My Father at CPH:DOX in 2019.

Filmography

Crystal (2003) 20 Fingers (2004) 10 + 4 (2007) One. Two. One. (2011) 30 minutes to 6 (2011) From Tehran to London (2012) Life May Be (2014) (co-directed with Mark Cousins) A Moon for My Father (2019) (co-directed with Douglas White) Dear Elnaz (2020) How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish (2022)

Video arts

Repression (2004) Sin (2004) Escape (2004) Fear (2004) Devastation (2004) I slept with my mother, father, brother and sister in the country called Iran (2012) In My Country Men Have Breasts (2012)

Exhibitions

Video Arts Kakhe Niyavaran/ Niavaran Palace Gallery - gallery (Tehran, Iran - 2004) Locarno International Film Festival – special screening (Locarno, Switzerland - August 2005) 15th Videobrasil (São Paulo, Brazil - 2005) City of Women International Film Festival of Contemporary Arts ( Ljubljana, Slovenia - 2005) Peru International Film Festival - screening (Lima, Peru - 2005) Salento International Film Festival - screening (Salento, Italy - 2005) Rochester-High Falls International Film Festival - exhibition (Rochester, NY, USA - 2005) Gijón International Film Festival - exhibition (Gijon, Spain - 2005) Iranian Group Exhibition (Rome, Italy - 2006) Tate Modern at Tate Museum - screening of Video Art - Self(2007) (London, UK - 2007) Xerxes Art Gallery (London, UK - 2008) Caledonia Festival - screening (Udine, Italy - March 2009) The Royal College of Art - screening of Video Arts Self and Sin (London, UK - October 2009)

Art works Tarahan Azad Gallery (Tehran, Iran - 2008) 10 Gallery (Tehran, Iran - 2008) Tarahan Azad Gallery (Tehran, Iran - 2009) Magic of Persia's Auction (Dubai, UAE - 2009) Mellat Gallery (Tehran, Iran - 2009) Phillips de Pury & Company Auction (London, UK - 2009) Pierre cornette de saint cyr (Paris, France - 2009) The Night (2023)