Biography

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker, Sadaf Foroughi, began her career in 2003, writing and directing short films, documentaries, and video art pieces that have been exhibited and screened worldwide.

As an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Campus, Foroughi was selected in 2005 to direct a short documentary episode of "The Why Democracy?" project, commissioned by Steps International and ZDf/Arte. Her episode, Féminin, Masculin, was nominated for Best Non-European Film at the Grand Off- European Off Film Awards in Warsaw and won Best Short Film at the annual Oxford Brooks University Film and Music Festival.

In 2009, Foroughi founded the Montreal-based production company Sweet Delight Pictures (SDP) with fellow filmmaker Kiarash Anvari. SDP was nominated as one of the top five emerging Canadian production companies at the 2017 Indie Screen Awards.

Foroughi co-wrote, produced, and starred in Anvari's feature debut, The Pot and the Oak, which had its world premiere at the 2017 Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Foroughi's own debut feature as writer, director, and producer, AVA, premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. AVA won the FIPRESCI award in the Discovery section, received an honorable mention as best debut Canadian feature film, and was named one of TIFF's Top Ten Canadian Films of 2017. AVA also earned Foroughi nine significant award nominations from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, including a win for Best First Feature Film and Best Supporting Actress.

Foroughi's second film, Summer With Hope, won the Crystal Globe Grand Prix for Best Film at the 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Summer With Hope has since been screened and nominated for further awards at prestigious festivals worldwide, and is nominated for three 2023 Canadian Screen Awards, including best screenplay and best picture.

In addition to her filmmaking work, Foroughi has served as a juror for various festivals and awards, including the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Tbilisi International Film Festival, and the Talents Footprints - Mastercard Enablement Programme at Berlinale Talent 2024. She holds a master's degree in film studies from the University of Provence in France and a degree in film production from the New York Film Academy, and is pursuing a PhD in film philosophy.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous