Venice Days Top Prize Awarded to Amir Azizi’s ‘Inside Amir’

Venice Days Top Prize Awarded to Amir Azizi’s ‘Inside Amir’

Inside Amir, the new feature film from writer and director Amir Azizi (Two Dogs, Temporary) that follows a young man in Tehran, Iran, on the verge of emigrating, has won the Director’s Award, the top prize, at the 2025 edition of Venice Days, or Giornate degli Autori, the independent parallel section of the Venice Film Festival. 

“Amid scattered memories, unfinished conversations, and slow-moving days, he faces a decision he hasn’t fully made yet: to leave or to stay,” reads a synopsis for the movie. “The only thing he refuses to part with is his bicycle – a companion through the city’s streets and a symbol of his past.”

The Venice Days jury was led by Norwegian writer and director Dag Johan Haugerud and also included Italian Vermiglio producer Francesca Andreoli, French-Palestinian filmmaker Lina Soualem (Bye Bye Tiberias), New York’s MoMA film curator Josh Siegel, and Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fani (La vie d’Adèle, Timbuktu).

The jury called Inside Amir “a meditation on everyday life,” adding: “It reminds us of how daily routines, movements, and conversations with friends provide both security and freedom. With a framing that little by little reveals a complex life marked by loss and grief against a backdrop of exile and social upheaval, the film asks fundamental questions about what it means to belong and the existential doubts that follow in the wake of such thoughts.”

Concluded the jury: “It is a film that takes time to listen, and that shows how unexpected, spontaneous encounters build a rich life. The film’s precise dialogue and staging give a strong sense of presence, and as a viewer you feel a generosity in the way you are invited in among a group of friends and get to take part of both intimate, profound, and trivial conversations. Another thing that gives great pleasure when watching this film is the subtle use of different time periods, often in the same frame, and often during the same bike ride.”
 
Meanwhile, the Europa Cinemas Label award went to Bearcave by Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna B. Papadakis. The film follows the relationship between two young queer women high up in the Balkan mountains.

The People’s Choice Award, “determined on the basis of the preferences expressed by viewers in Sala Perla at the Palazzo del Casinò at the end of the screenings of the official selection,” went to two films ex aequo, namely Memory by Vladlena Sandu and A Sad and Beautiful World by Cyril Aris.

“Six-year-old Vladlena moves from Crimea to Grozny following her parents’ divorce, unaware that war will soon consume her childhood,” reads a synopsis for Memory. “As the Soviet Union collapses, the Chechen Republic fractures. Her Russian-speaking friends flee while deported Chechens return, reclaiming their homeland. Tensions escalate, and an armed conflict erupts.”

A Sad and Beautiful World, meanwhile, is described as a “sweeping love story” that spans three decades. “Nino and Yasmina find themselves drawn together by a magnetic relationship,” says its synopsis. “As they face an impossible choice between love and survival, they must decide if they want to build a family and chart a path to happiness in Lebanon, despite the tragedies ravaging the country.”