Bahareh Rahnama and her daughter Pariya in an Italian film festival

Platform for new talent

Festivals have traditionally been the place where professionals and filmmakers alike go to spot new talent. I can remember the first time I went to a film festival in my native Toronto and was completely swept away by Jim Jarmush’s debut Stranger Than Paradise. The fact that he attended in person, adorned in black with a mop of prematurely white hair was an added bonus to his 1984 TIFF screening.