Babak
Payami

Writer · Director · Producer

Films shaped by moral pressure, political consequence and human contradiction.

Venice Silver Lion for Best Director — Secret Ballot

14 Awards
10 Best Picture Nominations

Babak Payami has received 14 international awards, including the Venice Silver Lion for Best Director for Secret Ballot. The complete record is available on the Awards and Nominations page.

International Recognition
01/06

Selected
Work

Across political satire, dramatic fiction and documentary, Babak Payami’s films examine individuals confronting systems larger than themselves.

01

Secret
Ballot

Political Satire

On a remote Iranian island, an election becomes a wry study of authority, citizenship and the distance between democratic ritual and lived reality.

02

Manhattan
Undying

Romantic Drama

In New York, a struggling artist and an immortal woman enter a relationship shaped by desire, mortality and the cost of being seen.

03

752 Is Not
a Number

Documentary

A father’s pursuit of truth after the destruction of Flight PS752 becomes an intimate record of grief, resistance and the demand for justice.

Black-and-white portrait of filmmaker Babak Payami

Writer · Director · Producer

Babak
Payami

Babak Payami is an Iranian-Canadian writer, director and producer whose work moves between political cinema, character-driven drama and documentary inquiry.

His films have been presented and recognized internationally. His career has taken him across Europe, North America and the Middle East as a filmmaker, producer, creative director and cinema educator.

Read Full Biography

03/06 · The Company

Payam
Films

Created in his grandfather’s honor, Payam Films carries a legacy of independent cultural expression into cinema, developing and producing work grounded in authorial vision and international collaboration.

About Payam Films
1916

The Name

Founded by Mohammad Payami, Payam was among Iran’s earliest independent printing houses. It later became an independent newspaper known for progressive social, cultural and political publishing—beginning a legacy of independent expression.

1998

The Company

Babak Payami founds Payam Films, taking its name from his grandfather’s newspaper and establishing an independent platform for cinema.

04/06 · Professional Inquiries

Discuss
a Project

Directing – Writing – International Co-productions Talks – Lectures – Workshops

Stefan Hogan

Literary Agent
Oscars Abrams Zimel + Associates Inc. (OAZ)

stefan@oazinc.com
Discuss a Project