PRODUCTION / FUNDING Iran / France / Sweden / Germany
My Favourite Cake to premiere in the Berlinale Competition

by Sevara Pan, Cineuropa
January 31, 2024

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake to premiere in the Berlinale Competition

The film, previously selected for the New Dawn scheme, tells the story of an ageing woman who dares to live out her desires in a country where women’s rights are often curtailed.

My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, the Iranian writing-directing duo’s third feature-length collaboration, is in the Competition line-up of the 74th Berlin Film Festival, with a good chance of taking home the festival’s top award, the Golden Bear.

My Favourite Cake was among the first six films selected for the first round of the New Dawn scheme, launched in 2022 by a number of public funds as a joint step towards “a more diverse film landscape”.


Lili Farhadpour in My Favourite Cake (© HOBAB)

My Favourite Cake will celebrate its world premiere at the upcoming Berlinale. The film centres on the story of a 70-year-old woman, Mahin, in Iran, whose break from her solitary routine leads to an unexpected encounter. Lili Farhadpour stars in the film as Mahin, alongside veteran actor Esmaeel Mehrabi, who plays Faramarz.

My Favourite Cake marks a return to Berlin’s Competition for Moghaddam and Sanaeeha after their previous feature Ballad of a White Cow screened there in 2021, emerging as one of the audience favourites. Last year, the pair were banned from travelling in relation to their film My Favourite Cake, with fellow colleagues calling on the Iranian authorities to drop all charges against the directors.


Lili Farhadpour and Esmaeel Mehrabi in My Favourite Cake (© HOBAB)

My Favourite Cake is a co-production by FilmSazan Javan (Iran), Caractères Productions (France), HOBAB (Sweden) and Watchmen Productions (Germany). It was supported by the Swedish Film Institute, Sveriges Television, New Dawn, ZDF/ARTE, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the World Cinema Fund, the CNC’s Aide aux cinemas du monde, the Institut Français, the Île-de-France region, Eurimages and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The New Dawn international film production fund is an initiative presently involving ten public funds, aiming to open the film industry up to the “true diversity of perspectives, filmic expressions and relevance”. The participating organisations are the Netherlands Film Fund, the Swedish Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, the Finnish Film Foundation, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Film Fund Luxembourg, Screen Ireland, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Telefilm Canada and Portugal’s ICA.