Description: Mani Haghighi, born in 1969 in Tehran, is an Iranian filmmaker who initially studied philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. After completing his studies, he returned to Iran to pursue a career in filmmaking. His debut feature film, "Abadan" (2003), premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Haghighi gained recognition for his screenplay for Asghar Farhadi's film "Fireworks Wednesday" (2006), which he co-wrote with the director. The screenplay won the Special Jury Prize at the Three Continents Festival in Nantes. His second feature, "Men at Work" (Berlinale, Forum 2006), received the Best Screenplay Prize at the 2007 Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong and the Best Screenplay Prize in the international section of the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. He directed the film "Canaan" in 2008, based on a short story by Alice Munro. Additionally, he worked on two documentary films about the acclaimed Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui: "Hamoon’s Fans" (2007), which explores the lives of devoted fans of Mehrjui’s film "Hamoon," and "Dariush Mehrjui: The Forty Year Report" (2012), a feature-length documentary about Mehrjui’s life and works. His fourth feature film, "Modest Reception" (Berlinale, Forum 2012), received several awards, including the NETPAC Award at the Berlin Film Festival, the Free Spirit Award at the Warsaw Film Festival, and Best Actor and Best Actress prizes at the OSIAN’s Cinefan Festival in New Delhi. In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Mani Haghighi has also acted in films, including notable appearances in Asghar Farhadi's "About Elly" (Berlinale, competition 2009) and Nima Javidi’s "Melbourne" (2014), as well as his own film, "Modest Reception."