Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian
محمدحسین مهدویان
Mahdavian at the 2026Fajr Film Festival
Born	(1981-05-13)13 May 1981 (age 44) Babol,Iran
Alma mater	Soore University
Occupations	Film Director Screenwriter
Years active	2012–present
Spouse	Mahbobe Golsorkhtabar
Children	2

Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian (Persian:محمدحسین مهدویان; born 13 May 1981) is an Iranianfilm director andscreenwriter.^[1] He's best known for his filmsStanding in the Dust (2016),Midday Adventures (2017),Lottery (2018),Walnut Tree (2020) andMortal Wound (2021).^[2]

He won bothBest Film andAudience Choice of Best Film for making the filmMidday Adventures, making it one of only five films in The history ofcinema of Iran to win the latter. (the other four areThe Glass Agency,Low Heights,In Amethyst Color andCrazy Rook)^[3][4]

He graduated fromSoore University with aBachelor of Film and Television in Directing and a master's degree in production from theIran Broadcasting University.^[5][6][7]

Mahdavian received critical acclaim for making the filmStanding in the Dust, he won theCrystal Simorgh for Best Film and received a nomination forCrystal Simorgh for Best Director in 2016 at the 34thFajr Film Festival.^[8][9]

in 2017 he won theCrystal Simorgh for Best Film and theCrystal Simorgh for Audience Choice of Best Film forMidday Adventures. When he received this award (Crystal Simorgh for Audience Choice of Best Film), he called it the most important award of the festival.^[10][11]

He won theCrystal Simorgh for Best Director at the 38thFajr Film Festival for making the filmWalnut Tree. This film is about war it is about the ugliness of war the consequences of unconvee weapons.^[12][13]

Mohammad Hossein Mahdovian was fascinated by the moving picture since his childhood. He was one of those children who, instead of playing in the street, always sat in front of theTV and watched even the most outlandish programs. He decided to enter the cinema for the first time when he was ten years old, and of course, as a child, he wanted to become an actor.

Cinema had captured his heart, and besides watching television constantly, at the age of thirteen, Mahdovian recorded a picture for the first time with his uncle's home camera and gave his cousins a mise-en-scène in front of the camera. In this regard, he wrote his first screenplay in high school.

Unlike his father, his uncle was interested in cinema, and his small age difference with Mahdovian made cinema more serious for Mohammad Hossein. Uncle and niece used to go to all their cinemas together in those days. He not only took Mahdovian to the cinema for the first time, but also gave him the first book of his childhood. "I don't remember anything specific about the first movies I saw in the cinema, but I'm sure that things from those years have influenced me, and sometimes the images that remain in my mind, surprise me."

As you can guess, Mahdovian's favorite subject washistory, and according to himself, he used to read newspapers and follow events. What has been manifested in his films today is his interesting sensitivity to the contemporary history of Iran.

At the same age, he became interested inJules Verne's books. His favorite movies before high school are lively and action movies with heroes, such as Western movies or "Eagles" and "Afee" among Iranian movies.

But after high school and by getting acquainted with philosophy, his tendency is more towards intellectual cinema. "Arusi Khoban" directed byMohsen Makhmalbaf and "Hamoun" byDariush Mehrjoui are popular films of his era: "In those years, I used to watch intellectual films in an extreme way, which usually have a slow rhythm and their main focus is not on the narrative, a kind of intellectual stew in those years I had and I thought that a good film should be very complicated."

One of the main tools used by Mahdavians to represent a documentary is the use of a hand-held camera in filming, which creates the illusion of more reality for the viewer. A technique that is, of course, used in many especially social films of Iranian cinema. But the visual quality and texture of the image that Mahdavian creates is not similar to the scenes on social films.

In the first place, it uses theNegative to add a nostalgic aspect to the films, which is in harmony with the story and the theme of the film. That is, the choice of whether to shoot a negative or digital film is directly related to the story. In "Standing in the Dust" or "Midday Adventures" and "Midday Adventures: Trace of Blood", a 16mm negative camera has been used to bring the film closer to its narrative since the 1960s. Digital cameras have been rebuilt and in "Walnut Tree" in each period of the film, i.e. the 60s, 80s and 90s, in order to remain faithful to the visual index texture in each decade, 16mm, 35mm and digital cameras, respectively, have been used. They have their own visual phase.

In addition, the camera movements are not like other social films, it has sloppiness and pus, which again emphasizes the documentary aspect. Of course, this does not mean that the director's design is not accurate, that exactly all the elements in front of the camera are placed in such a way that they look slutty and "unplaced". In Mahdavian's works, the camera serves to document and bring the viewer closer to the date and time in which the story of the film takes place.

In a conversation about making a film aboutIran andNationalism, Mahdavian said:

My goal has always been to create national empathy, and I feel that the only thing that can save us today is empathy. Not to say that I am a very extremistnationalism. Not like that, but I have a deep patriotism. You can go back and see my films from the beginning until today, my problem is Iran and this issue has never changed.

• Assassination of The Source
• Wound Bone
• The Great Dictator
• Three Sides of The Battlefield
• Sana
• Short Story of Death In Mid-summer
• Father
• Angel of Death
• Single Bed
• Beam and Hope Collection

Actor	The Last Days of Winter	Standing in the Dust	Midday Adventures	Lottery	Midday Adventures: Trace of Blood	Walnut Tree	Shishlik	Mortal Wound	The Loser Man
Javad Ezzati			Y	Y	Y			Y	Y
Hadi Hejazifar		Y	Y	Y	Y
Amir Hossein Hashemi		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y
Mahdi Zaminpardaz	Y		Y	Y	Y			Y	Y
Hossein Mehri			Y		Y
Mahlagha Bagheri							Y	Y
Abbas Jamshidi Far							Y	Y
Rana Azadivar								Y	Y

• Cinema of Iran
• Fajr International Film Festival

• Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian atIMDb

• Soore University alumni
• Iranian film directors
• Iranian screenwriters
• Living people
• 1981 births
• People from Babol
• Crystal Simorgh for Best Director winners

• CS1 Persian-language sources (fa)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Articles containing Persian-language text