Iranian film director Mahvash Sheikholeslami, 54, won Thursday the top prize at the first international maritime film festival on Kish island in southern Iran.
The director won the prize worth 2,000 dollars for his documentary The Old Man and Hara.
The film tells the story of a man living alone on the Iranian island of Qeshm, after being orphaned as a child by his fisherman father.
The jury praised the film for its "total osmosis between the main character and the sea, which this man protects."
The jury, presided over by Baudouin Varennes, director general of the Toulon International Sea and Exploration Film Festival, was made up of film-makers from Russia, France and Australia.
A total of 250 films, aimed at increasing the awareness of viewers of the need to protect the seas and oceans, were screened during the three-day festival. Only 35 films reached the final competition.
Entries came from as far away as France, Germany, the Netherlands and United States.
The 250 participants signed a message of peace at the closing ceremony.
"At the heart of the Persian Gulf, in this period of world tension and with a neighbor at war, Afghanistan, we wanted to give a sign of peace to the world," festival organizer Kioumars Derambakhsh said -- AFP
