Yesterday, the Ahk Graduation Award 2021 took place at Amsterdam's Melkweg, and it was truly an unforgettable evening. The winners of this edition were Yalda: the longest night (Faydim Ramshe) and Watertrots (Niek Smal). Also, XY WE (Marleen Hendrickx) won the audience award.
My project, Saoshyant, got an incredible attention and feedback from the jury of the Ahk Eindwerk Prijs, which I am extremely grateful for:
Saoshyant – Ramin Amin Tafreshi "Saoshyant is a work of exceptional quality for a bachelor's graduation project. Due to a fantastic, layered composition and the modern filming of the old Persian story about the King Zahhak, this short opera is a topical and revealing artwork about the choices that must make in our lives. Bravo!"
Jury report Graduation Prize 2021
In this blog post, I would like to share the incredible process that we have experienced together with all the nominees, thanks to the Amsterdam University of the Arts (Ahk).
Back in November 2021, we got informed about our nominations at the Ahk Eindwerk Prijs. Such an achievement brought us new opportunities to have workshops, create a trailer for our works and present our graduation projects to a bigger audience.
On the 19th of November, we got a chance to have a workshop: Sticky Stories with Marije Fris from the Great Communicators. The workshop was really interesting, and I truly enjoyed it a lot. The idea was to present our projects in a compact but influential way. So, Marije gave us different advice and helped us shape the story of our projects, not only for the purpose of the workshop but also as training for the actual video teaser that was on our plans for the award ceremony afterwards.
The next stop was a fascinating opportunity to create that aforementioned video teaser for our projects together with the Filmmaker and videographer, Gilles van Leeuwen.
The idea was to present our project in a "compact and influential way" (remember the workshop?). So, I thought of recreating my own opera, Saoshyant, and being one of the main characters of my story. What can be more influential to tell a story while acting in an opera recreation? So, the night before the recording session, I wrote the text and bought all the stuff I needed for recreating the scene. Except for the candles, clothes, and many different bowls, that means that I had to make different kinds of types of blood, which was such a joy to make some litres of that (!!).
The video session went incredibly well, thanks to Gilles van Leeuwen and the incredible production manager, Maureen Ho. We recorded the whole scene, and Gilles worked on the editing while I created the music and sound for the teaser based on the opera.
I should definitely give credit to my partner in crime, Soheil Shayesteh, who previously, during the production of the opera, did a fantastic job with making the electronics for "Saoshyant".
Acknowledgement
Hereby, I would like to thank the Amsterdam University of Arts and the Jury of the Eindwerk Prijs for giving me such an opportunity. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the incredible production manager of Ahk Graduation Prize, Maureen Ho, who has been the kindest, most supportive, and beautiful-minded person who organised this whole journey.
In the end, I would like to share all the projects that were nominated at the 10th edition of the Ahk Graduation Awards. I feel so honoured to be among these creative minds and fantastic artists. I am completely sure we will hear their names more and more in the field of arts.
Ahk Eindwerk Prijs Nominees
(I added their website so you can easily follow their works.)
Bachelor
Notes by Lautaro Hochman , Siebren Smink, David Ko - Composition, Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Saoshyant by Ramin Amin Tafreshi - Composition, Conservatory of Amsterdam
The Unspoken Truth by Dion Rosina - Visual Arts and Design Teacher, Breitner Academy
Desire of Lotte Salomons - Directing Documentary, Netherlands Film Academy
XY WE by Marleen Hendrickx - Theater teacher (shortened), Academy of Theater and Dance
Yalda: Faydim Ramshe's Longest Night , Ivo Siebum, Rosalien Hollestelle - Directing Documentary, Production, Production, Netherlands Film Academy
Master
The Calabar Sculpture Garden by Stephanie Idongesit Ete - Architecture, Academy of Architecture
The Democratization of Knowledge by Andrea Lagrutta - Museology, Reinwardt Academy
Sector Quicksand by Abhay Kumar - Master of Film, Netherlands Film Academy
Time Will Tell by Reza Mirabi - Choreography, DAS Graduate School, Academy of Theater and Dance
Water Pride by Niek Smal - Landscape Architecture, Academy of Architecture
