Iranian director bags Canadian Oscar-qualifying festival nominations
Iranian filmmaker Ramin Hosseinpour scored nominations in two categories at Canada’s Oscar-qualifying Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) for his documentary short ‘Sculpture,’ festival organizers announce
The director landed nominations for Best Director and Best Film in the documentary category at TINFF, which runs from September 6 to 13, 2025, in Toronto
The festival gained recognition as a Canadian Screen Award qualifying event through approval from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, cinemajournal.ir reported.
Hosseinpour also swept four awards at the 22-year-old Accolade Global Film Competition in San Diego in June 2025, taking home honors for Best Director, Best Short Documentary, Best Writing and Best Screenplay
The filmmaker will serve on TINFF’s international industry panel, participating in specialized sessions, professional roundtables and official programs during the festival. The awards ceremony and red-carpet event will take place within the same September timeframe
‘Sculpture’ tells the story of 13th-century Persian poets Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, drawing from historical documentary sources. The film competes in both short film and video art categories at international festivals and is currently vying for qualification for the 2026 Academy Awards, Canadian Screen Awards and BAFTAs
The director is currently producing his next short film ‘The Pretender ,’ focusing on the life of Persian poet Attar, a prominent Persian poet and mystic from Nishapur.
International critics describe Hosseinpour’s work as documentary-based narratives that blend visual and conceptual aesthetics with architectural structure and musical composition
The Accolade Global Film Competition, operating since 2003 in San Diego, California, ranks among America’s most established independent artistic events in film and visual media. The competition uses specialized jury systems while focusing on discovering global creative talent
