Shahrzad Dadgar

Shahrzad Dadgar is an award-winning director/writer/photographer. She has written and directed two short films, 500 Ounces of Gold and Highlight, which have been honored with multiple awards at worldwide festivals. In 2016, she received the coveted Golden Gazzale from the Persian International Film Festival in Australia and the "Best Script" award from the Cervaignano Film Festival in Italy. She received the "Best Inspirational Women in Film" award from the Festigious Film Festival of Los Angeles. For over a decade, Shahrzad worked as a freelance assistant director and script supervisor in the motion picture industry. She strongly believes in the power of storytelling to inspire dialogues, challenge perceptions and educate a broad audience around issues of gender equality, racial and sexual stereotypes, and underrepresented groups. In 2017, her last short film, "Highlight" got banned and dismissed from all the public exhibitions. The story reflects the radical beliefs about women's virginity, pregnancy outside of marriage, and the challenging life of a transgender person in Iran. Her first short film, "500 Ounces of Gold", tells the story of a religious woman who must make a profound decision about abortion. Shahrzad has widened her artistic narration's horizon from promoting women's empowerment to the importance of gender fluidness liberty. She has programmed for the Hilaj Film Festival, Phin Film Festival, and multiple Iranian short film screenings since 2011. She is currently the movie screener for Atlanta Film Festival. She received a B.S. degree in Urban Engineering from Azad University in Iran and now attending the University of Central Florida on a Provost's Fellowship to obtain MFA in Film Production. She is currently in the pre-production phase of her first independent feature Eternity Road.