Sam Chegini

Born in an artistic family in Tehran/Iran in 1992, Sam developed a strong passion for Fine Arts from an early age. Growing up alongside his mother's easel, with the smell of painting colors and thinner, the beautiful messiness of charcoal and the matchwood of drawing pencils, he surely got his first inspirations from her as a painter. His first decade of life, spending in art circles and in caress of music and images, was full of amusement and delight. It was there that his passion for moving images and filmmaking provoked. But things started to change afterwards. Being taken away from that artistic atmosphere with all the connections he had and all the scholastic opportunities of the capital and obliged to relocate to the city of Qazvin due to his father's job, he found his dreams for future suddenly distorted. He followed his middle and high school studies in the only Arts School in Qazvin. Pursuing his strong passion in filmmaking, he grasped every opportunity to learn and experience. His mutual love for music and images made music videos one of the areas of his most interest. Hardships of pursuing art and music in Iran and his quest for the up-to-date knowledge led him to reach out to the world beyond the borders of his country, communicating with artists from other nationalities and taking part in several international contests. In 2007, he decided to found his own home studio under the label of Sam Pictures Productions and started working as a freelance graphic designer, filmmaker and editor. In 2009, he connected to the Dutch singer/songwriter Linde Nijland through internet after her trip to Iran. Though they never found a chance to meet in person, their contact, which also became a friendship, led to the making of his first official animated music video for one of Linde's songs "Traveller" which tells the story of a traveller who is asking herself symbolic questions about the meaning of life along the way. Traveller has been screened in various international film festivals around the globe and succeeded to win the Royal Reel Award from Canada International Film Festival in 2013. It also won first place in music video category in the My Hero international film festival, second place in Experimental/Music Video category in the 6th Annual Boomtown film and music festival and first place in PBS Reel 13. In early 2014, Sam collaborated as a puppeteer with "The City of Mice 2" project, the sequel to a very nostalgic puppetry feature film directed by legendary Iranian director, Marzieh Boroumand.