Babak Payami is an Iranian-Canadian film director, writer and producer.
Biography
Babak Payami was born in Tehran in 1966. He grew up in Afghanistan and Iran before leaving for Europe and subsequently Canada where he became a Canadian citizen. He later enrolled in the cinema studies program at the University of Toronto during the early 90s while working as translator and court interpreter. In 1998 Payami returned to Iran where he wrote, produced and directed his debut feature film "". It premiered in the official Panorama Special program of the Berlin International Film Festival 2000. He later wrote, directed and co-produced with Marco Mueller, his second feature film "" which went on to compete in the official program of the Venice International Film Festival in 2001. The film earned him several accolades in Venice including the Best Director award. In 2002 Payami began production on "" which he wrote, directed and produced in the remote areas of eastern Iran close to the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The film was completed after a difficult 73-day shoot. Payami was eventually arrested by Iranian officials during the editing of the film. All original negative and sound material for Silence Between Two Thoughts was confiscated by the Iranian government and Babak Payami was forced into exile during the summer of 2003. A working copy of the film was salvaged on a hard disk and with help from fellow Italian filmmakers Payami released a reconstructed version of the film in the official program of the Venice International Film festival. In 2003 he was a member of the jury at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival. Since his exile, Payami taught at the Ludwigsburg Film Academy in Germany and conducted numerous workshops in Italy and North America while developing his English language film projects. In late 2007 and until January 2010, he was the creative director of the Media Studio at Fabrica, a United Colors of Benetton Communication Arts research Centre in Northern Italy. During his tenure at Fabrica he produced several projects including "I Am Jesus" directed by Valerie Gudenus and Heloisa Sartorato, "Branding Kosovo" directed by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. Since 2006, Payami re-established Payam Films Inc. in Toronto with his partner Charles Wachsberg and began development of several projects including an original story he wrote on Caravaggio titled "Chiaroscuro", his adaptation of a Chingiz Aitmatov book titled "The Eternal Day", "Mina" and "Assassiyun" which he co-wrote with Toronto writer Ian Carpenter. In 2017 Babak Payami directed "Manhattan Undying" a Canadian feature film with American stars Luke Grimes and Sarah Roemer along with Canadian veterans Daniel Kash and Earl Pastko. The film was released by Paramount Pictures and e-one in Europe and North America. Payami also co-wrote and with Michele Fuzellier co-directed, a French-Italian animated feature film "The Story of a Fearless Child" that was released internatilnall in 2016. In 2010 Payami established Payam Entertainment as a result of recent collaborations with Iranian musician, composer and performer . Payami produced several concerts for Namjoo at the Los Angeles Disney Hall, Toronto Sony Centre and the Milan Conservatory and Namjoo's albums "OY" in 2009, "Useless Kisses" in 2010 and "Alaki" in 2011 and "OY Live in Milan DVD". Since 2012 Babak Payami has been the Artistic Advisor to the Tirgan Festival in Canada that is the largest Iranian festival outside of Iran. in 2018, Payam Films optioned the motion picture rights to "The Bishop's Man", a Canadian best seller by renowned Canadian Author Linden MacIntyre. Babak Payam has written the screenplay by the same title and the film is to go to pre-production later in 2020.
