Baran Sarmad

Organized with the support of Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the Pop Up Film Residency CNC is a tailor-made program supporting Iranian filmmakers in the development of their feature film projects. Held in France over two months, the residency provides a dynamic artistic environment with personalized mentorship and professional exchanges tailored to each project. Committed to empowering singular voices in cinema, this initiative fosters bold storytelling, strengthens global artistic dialogue, and amplifies diverse perspectives in contemporary filmmaking.

Baran Sarmad was born in 1993 in Hamedan, Iran. Since her childhood, she has been interested in strange and fantasy atmospheres, which were visible in her paintings and later in her short stories during her school days. In 2014, before entering university,she made her short film calledMust be black in her personal space and room. She studied dramatic literature at SourehUniversity of Arts in Tehran and her thesis examined the daily life of women in the works of Chantal Akerman. During her undergrad, she and Mohammad Reza Meyghani founded an independent film studio, the first production of which was a film in 2015, where Baran Sarmadwas the producer. The production of the next film named Cleanertook place in 2018, in which she was the producer and editor. In 2019, she made her first professional short film called Spotted Yellow, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and entered other prestigious international festivals, including Chicago, Atlanta, Poff, Glasgow, and Palm Spring. In 2020, she produced and was the production designer of the filmOrthodontics, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2022, Baran Became a member of Locarno Academy. Baran Sarmad is one of the producers of the movieDiba,which received the best pitching screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Currently, she is working on the script of her first feature film Mellowpink

Mellow Pink

Roham, who is a professional hand model, takes care of his hands a lot wearing special gloves. On a working day, with the arrival of a pink flamingo which injures his hand, he loses his job, and his life changes. And he no longer takes care of his hands. He steals the flamingo and sets off on a motorcycle road trip. He finally frees the flamingo by a pink lake. At the end of the film, Roham floats on the water of the pink lake.

Baran Sarmad

Mellow Pink

Mentor

Anita Doron

All CNC Editions

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Abbas Taheri – Dwellers of the Sea

CNC