The White Balloon

The White Balloon (Persian: بادکنک سفيد, Badkonake sefid) is a 1995 Iranian drama film directed by Jafar Panahi, in his feature film directorial debut, with a screenplay by Abbas Kiarostami. The film received many strong critical reviews and won numerous awards in the international film fairs around the world including the Prix de la Camera d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The Guardian has listed this film as one of the 50 best family films of all time. The film is on the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

The film was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Iran unsuccessfully tried to withdraw the film from contention but the academy refused to accept the withdrawal.