Rafi Pitts ( fa, رفیع پیتز, born 1967) is an Iranian film director.

Life and career

Pitts was born in

Mashad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Rafi spent his childhood in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, where he lived in a basement flat underneath a post-production studio. He came to England (his father is English) in 1981 during the Iran Iraq war. He graduated in 1991 from the

Polytechnic of Central London , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

with a BA (Hons) degree in Film and Photography. His first short film, ''In Exile'' (1991) was presented the same year at the London International Film Festival. In the 90's Pitts moved to Paris and worked on films by

Leos Carax Alex Christophe Dupont (born 22 November 1960), best known as Leos Carax (), is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was '' Boy Meets Girl'' (198 ...

Jacques Doillon Jacques Doillon (; born 15 March 1944) is a French film director. He has a habit of giving lead roles to inexperienced young actresses in his films on family life and women. Some actresses to break through are Fanny Bastien, Sandrine Bonnaire, Ju ...

and

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...

. Educated in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, Rafi Pitts belongs to the ''new wave'' of

Iranian cinema The Cinema of Iran (Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame a ...

, which received numerous prestigious prizes in the international festival circuit. In 1996 he had the opportunity to film in Iran and he was the first film director (in exile) to do so since the Revolution in 1979. His first feature Season Five (1997) was the first Franco-Iranian coproduction since the Revolution. In 2006, he was nominated for ''Golden Bear'' award of

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

for his film, ''It's Winter''. His 2010 film '' The Hunter'' was nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The win ...

at the

60th Berlin International Film Festival The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama '' Apart Together'', in com ...

. His 2016 Film Soy Nero won the best film award at the 12th Bucharest International Film festival, in April 2016

Representative awards and honors

* Golden Bear, ''nominated'', Berlin Film Festival, 2006. * Grand Prix, Paris Film Festival, 2001. * Golden Moon of Valencia, Cinema Jove - Valencia International Film Festival, 2001. * Golden Wheel, Vesoul Asian Film Festival- France, 2001. * OCIC Grand Prix, Amiens International Film Festival, 1997. * Special Jury Prize,

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (german: Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the cit ...

, 1997 & 2000.

Filmography

* 2016 '' Soy Nero'' * 2011 '' 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero'' * 2010 '' The Hunter (Shekarchi)'' * 2006 It's Winter (Zemestan) * 2003 Abel Ferrara: Not Guilty (documentary from the series "Cinema de Notre Temps) * 2000 Sanam * 1997 '' Season Five'' (Fasl-e-Panjom)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, Rafi 1967 births Alumni of the University of Westminster Iranian film directors Living people People from Mashhad Persian-language film directors Iranian people of English descent