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Film Will Also Star Famed Iranian Actor Behrouz Vossoughi If you didn't see Bahman Ghobadi's latest effort, "No One Knows About Persian Cats," we definitely urge you to seek it out. It was a wonderful, moving little picture about an indie rock duo who struggle to remain inspired and creative under the strict laws in Tehran. We caught it during its festival run a couple of years ago at the Festival Du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal --you can check out our review here--and we're heartened to learn that the director's next effort has landed an international star, and is likely…...

Brillante Mendoza’s "Lola" was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 27th annual Miami International Film Festival, which concluded Sunday.

A screening of best foreign-language film Oscar winner "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" followed Saturday night's awards ceremony.

Bahman Ghobadi's "No One Knows About Persian Cats" (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh) took the audience award.

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to Bahman Ghobadi's "No One Knows About Persian Cats."

The film, set in Tehran’s underground music scene, opened the Un Certain Regard sidebar at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize.

It was written by Ghobadi, Hosein M. Abkenar and Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist who was accused of spying last spring and held in custody for several months.

Scheduled to play the SXSW Film Festival in March, "Cats" will open in New York on April 16 and in Los Angeles on April 23 and simultaneously be offered on VOD.

Its acquisition was negotiated by IFC's Arianna Bocco and Wild Bunch's Carole Baraton.

London -- Indie Network Releasing is purring after picking up all U.K. rights to Bahman Ghobadi's "No One Knows About Persian Cats" in a deal with sales banner Wild Bunch.

The fledgling British indie is aiming to build up a release slate of "thought-provoking world cinema titles," according to Network Releasing managing director Tim Beddows.

Ghobadi's fifth movie opened Un Certain Regard during Cannes this year and follows Iranian musicians Negar (Negar Shaghagi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) as they look for band members to play at a London concert plus the visa that allows them to leave Tehran to do so.

The soundtrack music is taken from a wide range of genres including Iranian rap, jazz and electric blues.

Executive produced by imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, the film includes performances in English and Farsi.

The U.K. theatrical rollout is scheduled for spring 2010.

• So the inflatable doll magically coming to life tale was perhaps too “out there” for a main comp acceptance, but Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll came on over to Un Certain Regard section along with expect works from Romanian filmmakers Cristian Mungiu (Tales From The Golden Age) and Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective), France's Denis Dercourt (Demain Des L'aube), Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Nymph) and Cannes regular (The Host, Tokyo!) Bong Joon-Ho and his latest film, Mother. Lee Daniels' Sundance fave is going to Cannes with a buzz worthy, shorter titled Push – this great news explains why the film was pulled out of the New Directors/New Films 2009 fest. Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi who gave us the devastating Turtles Can Fly a couple of year back comes to the Ucr section with another oddly titled film in Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats. And speaking of Sundance, Cannes' own Atelier de

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