SFFS/Hearst Screenwriting Grant Winner: The Last Harem
Maryam Keshavarz
Paolo Marinou-Blanco
$15,000 for screenwriting, 2012
THE FILM
A battle between Jayran, a young musician girl, and Malik Jahan, the mother of the newly ascended boy-king-- for the affection of the new monarch and control of the palace's extensive harem. Whoever wins becomes the most powerful woman in the Persian empire...
THE FILMMAKERS
Maryam received her MFA from NYU/Tisch in film direction and has been making award-winning films for 10 years. Maryam’s first feature documentary, The Color of Love, an intimate portrait of the changing landscape of love and politics in Iran, won numerous awards at top-tier festivals and was broadcast internationally. Maryam’s short film The Day I Died garnered top accolades at Mar del Plata, Clermont-Ferrand, New York Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival; and it was the only short film at Berlinale to win two awards: the
Gold Teddy and the Jury Prize.Maryam’s first narrative feature fiction film, Circumstance, premiered to overwhelming critical acclaim at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, garnering the coveted Sundance Audience Award, leading to Maryam’s inclusion in Deadline.com’s 2011 Director’s to Watch.
Circumstance has won over a dozen international awards including Best First Film at the Rome Film Festival and the Audience & Best Actress Awards at Outfest. Described by the New York Times as “Swirling and sensuous,” by the Wall Street Journal as “Supremely cinematic,” and by the Hollywood Reporter as “Amazingly accomplished,” Circumstance is one of the most critically acclaimed independent films of 2011, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and listed on PASTE MAGAZINE and Indiewire’s Best Films of 2011. The film was released
theatrically in North America in 2011, to be followed by a wide international release across Europe, Latin America and Asia in 2012. The film was developed at the Sundance Writers/Directors Lab, Tribeca All Access, and Film Independent's Producer's Lab. The film was realized with the supported of the France's Fonds Sud, the Netherlands Hubert Bals Award, Cinereach, SFFS Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Film Independent, Women in Film, the Sundance Institute, Kodak, and numerous other institutions.
Maryam has written numerous feature scripts--including NINA- to be shot in 2013. The Last Harem is her first collaboration with writer Paolo Marinou-Blanco. The Last Harem is slated to be Maryam's third narrative feature directorial effort.
Born in New York and raised in China, South Africa and Portugal, Paolo’s international upbringing left him with a command of 5 languages and a wanderlust that landed him in India and Nepal, training to be a novice Buddhist monk.
Deciding that he was a bit too young to give up all earthly pleasures, and still had many stories to tell, Paolo headed to the London School of Economics to study Philosophy and follow his passion for theater, staging over 30 award-winning productions in the London Fringe, both as actor and director.
Paolo then won a full scholarship to pursue an MFA in Filmmaking at NYU-Tisch, and in 2007 won funding from the Portuguese Film Institute to write and direct his first feature, Goodnight Irene, starring award-winning veteran British actor Robert Pugh.
Goodnight Irene premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to overriding critical acclaim, went on to travel to dozens of international festivals, and was theatrically released in Europe in 2008.
Paolo now works in the US, Europe and Brazil as a screenwriter, having recently sold a script to Paramount Pictures.
Paolo’s new project draws on his years working in Brazil, from impoverished fishing villages in the Northeast to wealthy gated communities in São Paulo. Candido or Optimism in Times of Economic Crisis is a dark comedy about a loner who tries to save his neighborhood from corrupt real-estate developers, by becoming a hitman.
The Last Harem is Paolo's first collaboration with writer/director Maryam Keshavarz.
Paolo Marinou-Blanco
$15,000 for screenwriting, 2012
THE FILM
A battle between Jayran, a young musician girl, and Malik Jahan, the mother of the newly ascended boy-king-- for the affection of the new monarch and control of the palace's extensive harem. Whoever wins becomes the most powerful woman in the Persian empire...
THE FILMMAKERS
Maryam received her MFA from NYU/Tisch in film direction and has been making award-winning films for 10 years. Maryam’s first feature documentary, The Color of Love, an intimate portrait of the changing landscape of love and politics in Iran, won numerous awards at top-tier festivals and was broadcast internationally. Maryam’s short film The Day I Died garnered top accolades at Mar del Plata, Clermont-Ferrand, New York Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival; and it was the only short film at Berlinale to win two awards: the
Gold Teddy and the Jury Prize.Maryam’s first narrative feature fiction film, Circumstance, premiered to overwhelming critical acclaim at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, garnering the coveted Sundance Audience Award, leading to Maryam’s inclusion in Deadline.com’s 2011 Director’s to Watch.
Circumstance has won over a dozen international awards including Best First Film at the Rome Film Festival and the Audience & Best Actress Awards at Outfest. Described by the New York Times as “Swirling and sensuous,” by the Wall Street Journal as “Supremely cinematic,” and by the Hollywood Reporter as “Amazingly accomplished,” Circumstance is one of the most critically acclaimed independent films of 2011, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and listed on PASTE MAGAZINE and Indiewire’s Best Films of 2011. The film was released
theatrically in North America in 2011, to be followed by a wide international release across Europe, Latin America and Asia in 2012. The film was developed at the Sundance Writers/Directors Lab, Tribeca All Access, and Film Independent's Producer's Lab. The film was realized with the supported of the France's Fonds Sud, the Netherlands Hubert Bals Award, Cinereach, SFFS Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Film Independent, Women in Film, the Sundance Institute, Kodak, and numerous other institutions.
Maryam has written numerous feature scripts--including NINA- to be shot in 2013. The Last Harem is her first collaboration with writer Paolo Marinou-Blanco. The Last Harem is slated to be Maryam's third narrative feature directorial effort.
Born in New York and raised in China, South Africa and Portugal, Paolo’s international upbringing left him with a command of 5 languages and a wanderlust that landed him in India and Nepal, training to be a novice Buddhist monk.
Deciding that he was a bit too young to give up all earthly pleasures, and still had many stories to tell, Paolo headed to the London School of Economics to study Philosophy and follow his passion for theater, staging over 30 award-winning productions in the London Fringe, both as actor and director.
Paolo then won a full scholarship to pursue an MFA in Filmmaking at NYU-Tisch, and in 2007 won funding from the Portuguese Film Institute to write and direct his first feature, Goodnight Irene, starring award-winning veteran British actor Robert Pugh.
Goodnight Irene premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to overriding critical acclaim, went on to travel to dozens of international festivals, and was theatrically released in Europe in 2008.
Paolo now works in the US, Europe and Brazil as a screenwriter, having recently sold a script to Paramount Pictures.
Paolo’s new project draws on his years working in Brazil, from impoverished fishing villages in the Northeast to wealthy gated communities in São Paulo. Candido or Optimism in Times of Economic Crisis is a dark comedy about a loner who tries to save his neighborhood from corrupt real-estate developers, by becoming a hitman.
The Last Harem is Paolo's first collaboration with writer/director Maryam Keshavarz.