Rafi Pitts

Rafi Pitts' films have attained acclaim and awards around the globe. Pitts' first feature, La cinquième saison (1997), premiered in the Venice Film Festival. His second, Sanam (2000) was hailed by French critics and compared to Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959). In 2003, Pitts presented his controversial feature documentary, Abel Ferrara: Not Guilty (2003) in the Official Selection of the Locarno Film Festival . Zemestan Ast (2006) premiered in the Berlin Competition, and one year later, the Seattle International Film Festival honored Pitts with the Emerging Masters Award for his work. In 2010, Pitts' fifth feature Shekarchi (2010) was also nominated for the Berlin Golden Bear as well as Best Actor for his performance in the leading role. In 2012 Ben Affleck invited Pitts to join him as an actor as well as his personal consultant on the feature film Argo (2012), which went on to win the Oscar for Best Motion Picture the following year. In 2016 Pitts premiered Soy Nero (2016) in the Berlin Film Festival and for the third time running he was nominated for the Golden Bear.

Born 1967 in Iran, Pitts spent his childhood in Tehran, where he lived in a basement flat underneath a post-production studio. During the war between Iran and Iraq, in 1981, he fled the country and moved to Britain. In 1991 Pitts graduated from Harrow College - Polytechnic of Central London with a BA (Hons) Degree in Film and Photography. His first short, 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, Jacques Doillon and Jean-Luc Godard.