The MovieSquad Award of the young people’s jury at the International Film Festival Rotterdam has been given to French animated film PERSEPOLIS on January 31, 2008. The five jury members, aged between 16 and 19 years, voted PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud as best out of the twenty-two festival films they considered for the prize.

Dutch youngsters Ms. Giulia Bijvoet (17), Mr. Wouter Booij (19), Mr. Sander Kersten (16), Ms. Katia Truijen (17) and Mr. Glenn Vergoossen (17) judged twenty-two films in official Rotterdam Film Festival selection. The MovieSquad Award comprises Dutch distribution within the ‘MovieZone’ educational film programme for young people and 2,000 Euro to be spend on the winner’s promotion among young people in The Netherlands.

The jury statement: “Persepolis has not been drawn in a realistic way. Yet this animated film has touched us deeply. The script was very well constructed. In a film about a girl in Iran in which political developments play such an important role, it is obvious to think of serious themes as supression by political or military leaders, corruption and poverty. All of these themes are addressed, but this film goes further. The heavier themes are relieved by a good dose of humour”