‏Rafi Pitts‏

Rafi Pitts' films have attained acclaim and awards around the globe. His first feature, Fasl-e panjom (1997), was the first Franco-Iranian co-production since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and premiered in the Venice Film Festival. Sanam (2000) was hailed by French critics as the Iranian The 400 Blows (1959). In 2003, Pitts presented his controversial feature documentary, Abel Ferrara Not Guilty (2003) in Locarno . It's Winter (2006) premiered in the Berlin Competition, and one year later, the Seattle International Film Festival honored Pitts with the Emerging Masters Award for his work. In 2010, Pitts' fifth feature The Hunter (2010) was also nominated for the Berlin Golden Bear. In 2012 Ben Affleck invited Pitts to join him as his personal Consultant on the feature film Argo (2012). In 2016 Pitts premiered yet another controversial feature at the Berlin Film Festival, the story of a "Green card soldier" Soy Nero (2016) and for the third time running he was nominated the Golden Bear. Born 1967 in Iran, Pitts spent his childhood in Tehran, where he lived in a basement flat underneath a post-production studio. During the war between Iran and Iraq, in 1981, he fled the country and moved to Britain. He graduated in 1991 from Harrow College - Polytechnic of Central London with a BA (Hons) Degree in Film and Photography. His first short, In Exile (1991), was presented the same year at the London International Film Festival. In the 90's, Pitts moved to Paris and worked on films by Leos Carax, Jacques Doillon and Jean-Luc Godard.