According to Khabar Online's art correspondent, at the closing ceremony of the festival which was held on 21 February, the selected works and artists were named where with her 'Final Whistle', Niki Karimi represented Iranian cinema at the competition section.
The film received the Emile Guimet Award granted by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Arts of Paris as well as a cash prize; and the INALCO Jury Award granted by the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris in addition to another cash prize.
Moreover, 'Final Whistle' garnered a third trophy, the Youth Award granted by the Commune of Vesoul. The annual festival which is centered on Asian cinema ran from February 14 to 21.
The feature focuses on the interaction of private and social life as the ordinary life a documentarist couple, Sahar and Saman is upset. When a scene in a documentary Saman has made is destroyed, he asks his wife to re-shoot the part.
Through her assistant, Sahar finds a girl who appeared in the scene but the girl's mother is charged with murder and has received a death sentence, while her daughter is desperately trying to collect the blood money to save her life. Sahar tries to persuade the relatives of the murdered to overturn the sentence as she herself is embroiled in the moral battle.
'Final Whistle' had earlier taken part at the 8th edition of Dubai International Film Festival, the 2011 Busan International Film Festival and the 22nd Festival of Iranian Films at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center.
Karimi herself has been a member of several jury panels at International film festivals above them the Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno as well as Rennes, Reykjavik (as the head of jury panel) and Damascus.
She began her career as actress by performing in the successful film, ‘The Bride’ (1990) directed by Behrouz Afkhami which turned her into a new born star, actually the first in the post-Islamic Revolution Iranian cinema.
However her performances in the features, ‘Sara’ and ‘Pari’ made by the outstanding filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, gave her prominence as she received the Best Actress Award both at the San Sebastian (1992) and Nantes Three Continents (1993) film festivals for ‘Sara’ owing to her portrayal of contemporary Iranian woman.
In 2004 she directed her first feature ‘One Night’ which was followed with ‘A Few Days Late’ in 2006.
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