Black Rabbit, White Rabbit Wins Antalya Writers Award
Shahram Mokri's Tajik-Emirati co-production took the Sungu Capan International Cinema Writers Award at Türkiye's 63rd Golden Orange festival.
Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Science Fiction
Shahram Mokri's Black Rabbit, White Rabbit won the Sungu Capan International Cinema Writers Award at the 63rd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, held in Türkiye from October 24 to 31. The film had earlier premiered at the 30th Busan International Film Festival in September.
Why it matters
The award adds to a run of international festival recognition for Mokri, whose earlier films won a Venice Horizons Award and a Venice Critics' Best Screenplay Award. For international audiences, the win highlights a Tajik-Emirati co-production reaching major festival circuits.
The film's festival record spans the 30th Busan International Film Festival premiere and the 63rd Antalya Golden Orange award, while Mokri's 2013 Venice Horizons Award came for his second feature Fish & Cat. The extraction provides no box office or viewership figures for the film.
The players
Shahram Mokri
Iranian filmmaker and director of Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, known for the festival-circuit features Fish & Cat, Invasion, and Careless Crime.
Sungu Capan International Cinema Writers Award
A festival prize honoring screenwriting in international cinema, presented at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
Türkiye's long-running international film festival, first held in 1963 and organized solely by the Antalya Foundation since 2009.
The details
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit follows three people whose destinies intertwine through seemingly unrelated events in Tajikistan, blending magical realism with meta-textual storytelling. The cast includes Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammai, Kibriyo Dilyobova, and Bezhan Davlyatov, and the film is Mokri's fifth feature.
Timeline
September 2025: world premiere at the 30th Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.
October 24 to 31, 2026: 63rd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival held in Türkiye, where the award was presented at the closing ceremony.
Festival Trajectory
Mokri's Antalya win follows his 2013 Venice Horizons Award for Fish & Cat and the Venice Critics' Best Screenplay Award for Careless Crime, marking another step in his festival-circuit career. The pattern places his recent work within a long-running European and Central Asian festival path rather than a single breakout moment.
The extraction gives no release platform, theatrical date, or streaming details, so viewers cannot yet tell where or how to watch the film. Access will depend on future distribution announcements following its festival run.
The takeaway
Festival recognition often precedes wider distribution, so readers interested in Mokri's work can watch for release announcements from the Busan and Antalya circuits. Following festival award listings is one practical way to track independent international science fiction as it moves toward audiences.
Further reading
For more on the genre's festival-circuit films, explore Science Fiction coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Tehran Times.
