Jasmin Mozaffari


Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter of Canadian and Iranian heritage, who won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.

Early life

Jasmin was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her father was an Iranian immigrant who came to Canada from Tehran at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Her mother is from Provost, Alberta. Jasmin grew up in Barrie, Ontario before moving to Toronto to attend Ryerson University for Film Studies.

Career

Jasmin graduated from Ryerson University in 2013. Her student thesis film, Firecrackers, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. After graduating, Jasmin directed the short films WAVE which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and sleep on the tracks.

''Firecrackers''

Based on her short thesis film, Jasmin expanded Firecrackers into her first feature film. Firecrackers was made through the Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch Fund. The film premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen around the world and won Best Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival. In December 2018, the Toronto International Film Festival named the film to its year end Canada's Top Ten list.
The film was released in Canada and the US theatrically and became a New York Times Critic's Pick.

Accolades

In March 2019, Jasmin won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards. Her work has been praised by The New York Times, Vulture magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety.
In his review of Firecrackers, Peter Debruge of Variety called Jasmin a "major talent" and compared her to a "young Andrea Arnold."
In March 2020, Jasmin was one of 8 writers to be selected to develop her next feature film through the Toronto International Film Festival's Writers' Studio.