TEHRAN -- Iranian director Majid Majidi has announced that his next film will be about Kashmiri children, the Mehr News Agency reported on Friday. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 5th Third Eye Film Festival in Mumbai on October 19, he said, “Fortunately, it seems the situation is calming down, and I will begin shooting my new film in Kashmir in the next three months.”

Majidi received the festival’s Asian Film Culture Award at the ceremony, during which his latest film “Weeping Willow” was screened.

Majidi’s “Children of Heaven” was nominated in the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the annual Academy Awards in 1998 and his “Baran” had been selected by Iranian cultural officials to represent Iranian cinema in the event in 2001. Asked why his films center on people in poor districts, he answered, “Because I think I belong to this class of society. I think that speaking about this class is very interesting for me. I like to show their brotherhood in my films.”

The Iranian films “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” directed by Ahmadreza Motamedi, Azizollah Hamidnejad’s “Tears of Cold”, Dariush Mehrjuii’s “Mom’s Guest”, and Kazem Masumi’s “Military Drill” were also screened during the event, which began on October 12.

Films from 26 Asian countries were screened during the festival, which was established to promote the continent’s cinema.