Catherine Esway

On Friday, March 19, the European Documentary Network (EDN) held its ‘Award Ceremony', during the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century. Until now, the EDN honoured European personalities and organisations which made a great contribution to documentary film industry.  This year, however, the Award was given to the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers' Association (IRDFA).

Hanne Skjodt, director of EDN, spoke on behalf of her organisation, referring to the decision to widen the geographical area of the Award.  "We wish to honour an organization outside Europe, an organisation which has done excellent work promoting its national documentary production. Today, the IRDFA has 300 members and makes a significant contribution to the development and spread of the documentary culture".

The award was received by Iranian filmmaker, Mahboubeh Honarian, on behalf of the IRDFA, who is president of the organisation for the past four years.  Ms. Honarian said: "I thank EDN very much for the honour of giving this award of culture and civilisation to IRDFA. We have been in close contact, especially over the last three years. We try to communicate with people from all over the world and we believe that the best way to do this is through documentaries".

Catherine Esway, assisted by Julianna Photopoulos