Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha

Maryam Moghaddam was born in Tehran in 1970. She graduated from the Performative Arts School in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she acted in several plays. Upon returning to Iran, she took on roles in various films, including Closed Curtain (2013) by Jafar Panahi, which won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Behtash Sanaeeha was born in Shiraz in 1980. He abandoned his master’s degree in architecture to focus on screenwriting and directing short films and advertisements. He wrote and directed two animated series for television and the television film Chalsio (2011), which marked his first collaboration with his wife, Maryam Moghaddam. In 2015, they reunited on Risk of Acid Rain, a project they both wrote, starring Maryam and directed by Behtash. The couple directed their first film together three years later, the documentary The Invincible Diplomacy of Mr. Naderi, which won the Hefez Award for Best Documentary. Since then, they have continued to collaborate in the director's chair, producing two feature films, Ballad of a White Cow (2020) and My Favourite Cake (2024). Both premiered in the Official Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, but only the latter won awards, namely the FIPRESCI Award and the Ecumenical Jury Award.