TEHRAN (Iran News) The 18th International Resistance Film Festival is set to introduce the “Morteza Badge,” a new award recognizing documentarians whose works embody the ideals of Martyr Sayyed Morteza Avini, known as the Martyr of the Pen.

Jalal Ghafari, who serves as the festival’s secretary and heads the Martyr Avini School of Art and Media, reported a significant increase in documentary submissions this year. He said that high-quality films have been received from various regions of Iran and around the world, indicating substantial growth in both quality and quantity compared to previous years.

Ghafari said that many of the submitted documentaries come from prominent institutions, including the Art and Cultural Organization of the Islamic Revolution, Owj Arts and Media Organization, and the Experimental Cinema Development Center.

Additionally, numerous revolutionary documentarians and national congresses honoring martyrs have contributed to this year’s lineup.

For the first time, the documentary committee will award the “Morteza Badge” to winners in the documentary section. The badge will be presented by a distinguished jury to those artists whose works best align with the themes of Morteza Avini.

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TEHRAN (Iran News)  The secretary of the International Resistance Film Festival strongly has criticized the silence of leading global film festivals regarding the crimes committed in Gaza.

Announcing that 500 cinematic works on the theme of resistance have been submitted, he declared, “Resistance cinema will be the voice of the oppressed worldwide.”

On Saturday, during a meeting with media activists from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and Armenia, Jalal Ghaffari highlighted the festival’s four-decade activity in cinema and resistance, emphasizing, “This festival is recognized as the only international event centered on ‘supporting the oppressed.’”

He added, “Our goal is to become a platform for the cries of the oppressed. Cinema is the most important cultural tool for conveying messages to the world. But unfortunately, colonial powers have turned global cinema into a tool for their inhumane agendas.”

Condemning the silence of major film festivals regarding the massacre of innocent civilians in Gaza, Ghaffari stated, “In the past year, more than 50,000 women, children, and civilians have been killed in Gaza. Yet, no international cinematic institution has addressed these atrocities.”

“Today, we proudly announce that over 500 international works focusing on Gaza and resistance have been submitted to this edition of the festival.”

He also criticized governments that manipulate reality through cinema, saying, “Some powers responsible for crimes against humanity misuse cinema to portray themselves as victims. Through the Resistance Film Festival, we aim to create a space where the voices of the oppressed can be heard.”

Ghafari concluded with hope for a future based on humanity, stating, “Certainly, the world of tomorrow will be built on kindness and justice, and I hope we can also be part of this noble human community.”

‘Resistance Cinema – A stronghold against global hegemony’

Following the discussion, Esrafil Kaliji, the head of the International Committee of the Resistance Film Festival, commended the presence of media activists at Iran’s National Cinema Museum and emphasized, “The concept of resistance is one of the highest human values that must be promoted in the film industry. Resistance cinema stands against the hegemonic system, and we are confident that independent media worldwide will align with the right front.”

He continued, “The film industry today is dominated by the global hegemonic order, but Resistance Cinema is determined to break this barrier.”

Addressing international media professionals, Kaliji affirmed, “As truth-seeking journalists in the global media landscape, you will undoubtedly stand on the right side of history and help spread the humanitarian message of resistance worldwide.”

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The Iranian productions at the Italian event include “Punch Drunk” directed by Adel Tabrizi, “The Breath” by Behzad Rezaei, and “Unnamed” by Iranmerhr Salimi.

“Punch Drunk” has been nominated in three categories including the Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

Written by Tabrizi and Arsalan Amiri, it is about a literature and karate teacher who falls in love with the divorced mother of one of his students.

The tragicomedy won the best screenplay award at the 16th Cheboksary International Film Festival in Russia in June.

The cast includes Behrang Alavi, Hamed Behdad, Baran Kosari, Nader Soleimani, and Siavash Cheraghipour among others.

“The Breath” has received three nominations at the Italian event as well. Having been nominated for the Best Director too, it is also vying for the Best Other Cinema Award. Moreover, Claudia Borgia has been nominated for the Best Leading Role.

The documentary depicts the loneliness and lack of communication between people during the Corona pandemic era and its impact on personal life, solitude and creativity of artists in different countries of the world.

In the School Award category, “Unnamed” is one of the five nominees. The short documentary revolves around the life of Zainab, a talented volleyball player, who chooses to undergo a gender transition as she feels that her spirit aligns more with the male gender. However, in doing so, she is aware of the severe repercussions, including the end of her successful career due to her short stature and the loss of her sole source of income, which could potentially jeopardize her family’s future.

Over 150 short and feature films from 39 countries are in competition at this year’s edition of the festival, including the Iran, Brazil, China, India, Russia, the U.S., and almost all of Europe.

In addition to the movie screening, the festival also includes meetings with producers, directors and actors and the “Sport, cinema and medicine” conference.

Launched in 1979, the Paladino d’Oro Sport Film Festival is the oldest in the world of sports cinema, which promotes the diffusion of sports films and videos. The festival seeks to promote the best quality of sports image productions; organize meetings between productions, film distributors and mass media, and be a teaching tool for schools and universities.

Golden Paladin is the Sport Film Festival Award. The Paladino d’oro is awarded by the sports film academy, made up of illustrious personalities from cinema, journalism and sport. All the films that have been nominated will receive an award during the final ceremony of the festival.

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Among the notable works attending the festival are the series “Lily’s Turn” directed by Ruhollah Hejazi, feature-length animated movie “Loupetoo” by Abbas Askari, and short animated films “The Lovely Sky” and “Being Ten” by Amir Mehran and Fatemeh Jafari respectively, Honaronline reported.

In “Lily’s Turn,” the main character Lili, through a mysterious book, discovers that she and her family have lived in many times and places, and now it is Lily’s turn to decipher the book and find a valuable painting of her ancestors to make a choice that gives meaning to all these lives.

The fantasy romance drama series stars Pardis Ahmadieh, Hamid Farrokhnezhad, and Merila Zarei among others.

Hejazi, 44, is a director, writer and producer. He directed his first short film “Start” in 1995, then followed up with ten more, shown at domestic and international festivals. He directed television dramas before making his debut feature film “Among the Clouds” in 2008, which garnered several awards at festivals around the world. His second feature film “The Private Life of Mr. & Mrs. M” (2012) and Third Film “The Wedlock” (2013) were shown at numerous international film festivals too.

His other movie “The Dark Room” (2018) was named best film at the 5th Hanoi International Film Festival and Kerala International Film Festival. In addition, he has won the best screenplay award at Asian Film Festival Barcelona for the film.

In the award-winning animation “Loupetoo,” Mr. Kamali, the owner of a sanitarium, treat the patients by teaching them to make toys. The toys are creative, so they are very attractive for the children. But the toy studio is shut because of sabotage and it leads to patients’ critical mental status. While Mr. Kamali efforts bear no results, an angel of hope appears to help him.

“Loupetoo” has won awards at several international festivals, including the award for best animation film at the 2022 Ahmedabad International Children Film Festival in India.

A production of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), “The Lovely Sky” is a 14-minute 2D animation, dealing with the issue of war.

The Iranian work follows an impatient fighter pilot who bombs cities every day. He returns to his little girl every night after completing his mission. The girl loves to fly, but the father doesn’t fulfill his daughter’s dream because of the bitter memory of his wife’s death. The war is getting closer every day. One day an incident changes their lives, forever.

Produced in 2022, it has so far won the best animation prize at the 52nd Roshd International Educational Film Festival in Tehran, Best Music at the 18th Vancouver Island Short Film Festival in Canada, and Best Animation in Itauna International Film Festival in Brazil.

Amir Mehran, 42, has an M.A. in animation directing from Soore Art University in Tehran. He has made several short animations so far and won awards at various international film festivals, including Warsaw, ANIMA, Grand OFF, Interfilm Berlin, Banja Luka, Cinefiesta, Imperia, Short Soup, Silk Road, and Noor among others.

Another production by the IIDCYA, “Being Ten” is about a father and his ten-year-old son who live in a lonely cottage in the middle of a dense wood. The father, a hunter, spares one of his prizes and brings it home as a present for his son. What, at first, was just a plaything forever will change the young boy’s life.

The 18-minute animation recently won the third prize of the 11th international festival Constantine’s Gold Coin in Serbia.

Fatehmeh Jafari, 46, graduated from Tarbiat Modares University with an M.A. in animation. She has begun her been active as an animator, script writer and director since 2005.

Dedicated to talent, especially emerging talent, the Girona Film Festival is a platform to show short films, feature films, documentaries, animations, video creation (experimental art), and music film (video clips).

The best in each category will be awarded at the closing ceremony on November 12.

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The movie will be screened at Bangkok Art & Culture Centre in Thailand on September 20, ILNA reported.

“Paper Dream” narrates the poignant tale of a young man living in seclusion due to his albinism. However, his life takes an unexpected turn when a cunning young girl exploits his pure-hearted nature and transforms him into a social media influencer. As their bond deepens, he finds himself captivated by her.

The film’s captivating storyline has already earned recognition at various international film festivals, including the Bridge Film Festival in Vancouver, the World Film Carnival in Singapore, and the Newark International Film Festival in the United States.

It has clinched the Best Director Award at the South Texas International Film Festival in Edinburg, and the Best Film Award at three festivals including the Black Hat Film Festival in Budapest, Hungary, the Independent Producers Indie Film Festival (IPIFF) in Bucharest, Romania, and the Athens International Film & Art Festival in Greece.

Amirhossein Mousavi, Kamran Tafti, Mina Vahid, Bita Atshani, Zeinab Mallaki, Ayeh Ghobadian, Majid Mahindoost, and Amirhossein Rezazadeh are in the cast among others.

ITFF is an internationally recognized film industry event in Thailand. It is both a film screening event and film entertainment industry expo. Alongside screenings of a wide variety of films, there are Panel Talks session, networking opportunities and the ITFF Award Ceremony.

The ITFF Competition is a film, animation and video competition for industry professionals and amateurs alike, who are passionate about filmmaking and wish to screen their work and compete for ITFF Awards to gain a wider recognition and reputation in the industry.

On September 21, Atshani will take part in a panel talk session along with four other filmmakers including Australian and Hungarian film director and producer Attila Peter Miklosy, South Korean director Jae Hyun Park, Russian director and producer Yana Klimova-Yusupova, and Thai director Wasin Pokpong.

Atshani, 45, is an Iranian film director, producer and screenwriter. So far, he has made nine feature films, winning several awards inside the country and overseas.

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Spain stands first with 913 submissions, and next comes India with 553 films, and then France with 494.

The countries of the US, China, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Britain, Turkey, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Poland and Argentina stand next respectively.

Out of 7,216 films, 3,390 fiction films, 1,112 experimental films, 1,068 documentary films and 936 animated films have been submitted to the festival.

Meanwhile, 445 submissions have been accepted to compete in the “The Truth-seekers Award” section and 265 submissions for the “The Silk Road Award” section.

The Tehran International Short Film Festival has been held for 40 consecutive years in Iran, by the Iranian Youth Cinema Society – one of the most renowned schools of cinema and short film production in Iran and throughout the world. With more than 80 branches across the country and a family of 250 thousand graduates, the Iranian Youth Cinema Society has gone through excellent educational and effective filmmaking courses, producing hundreds of short films every year and winning hundreds of awards from prestigious and prominent international film festivals in the past four decades.

TISFF is approved by the Academy Awards® (Oscars) and the winner of the Grand Prize becomes eligible for the Oscars.

The latest edition of the Tehran International Short Film Festival is slated to be held from October 19 to 24.

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“Asteroid” by Hosseinivand Aalipur, “Why Did the Giraffe’s Flower Fade?” by Kaveh Kanani and “Soo” by Roya Salmi are competing in different sections of the festival, which will run until April 23.

“Asteroid” is competing in the Feature Films category. The film is about Ebrahim, a 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-room shack in the heart of the desert, far away from the village.

Aside from feeding the children and obtaining a birth certificate for them, the main preoccupation of Ebrahim and his mother is to build a house in the village so they don’t have to walk all the way back and forth all the time.

“When one of my friends was shooting in the desert, I met Ebrahim for the first time,” Aalipur said in a statement for his film.

“In a village, where its inhabitants had not even registered for their National IDs, there was a little boy who did not know anything about life but working,” he added.

“I came back to Tehran but never managed to stop thinking of his story. So I began writing a script about a boy like Ebrahim… And when finished, I realized how little children and little princes are different from each other,” he explained.

“Why Did the Giraffe’s Flower Fade?” has been picked to be screened in the Shorts and Docs section.

In this animated film, Giraffe loves flowers. She keeps her flower in a jar to save it from wind and rain, but it withers, and she is very sad and doesn’t know why it happened.

“Soo” is competing in the Films by Children category.

Iranian English teacher Elham Shirvani, who is a member of CIFEJ – International Center of Films for Children and Young People, is a member of the jury, which will select the winner of the Next Gen Award.

Over 150 films from different genres, including feature films, short films, documentaries and animations, made by both professionals and children have been selected to be screened in various sections of the festival.

Photo: A scene from “Asteroid” by Hosseinivand Aalipu.

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“The Radkan Tower” directed Ehsan Mollazadeh and Hojjat Heidari, and “Isatis” by Alireza Dehqan will be screened in the Archaeological Cinema section of the festival, which will take place in Rovereto from September 28 to October 2.

“The Radkan Tower” is about a 25-meter conical brick tower in Iran, which has attracted visitors for centuries. It is a very advanced astronomical instrument, built almost 800 years ago under the supervision of Khawaja Nasir ad-Din al-Tusi, which has the ability to determine the exact moment of the change of each season, bringing the good news of the arrival of the spring.

In “Isatis”, water, wind, earth and fire tell the story of this millenary city: Isatis, the first city in the world to be built of brick, in the heart of the desert. The documentary is a narration of ancient rites and historical anecdotes; a demonstration of peaceful coexistence between religions; the revelation of the material and immaterial heritage of an ancient culture.

The animated movie “Gilgamesh” and “The Improvement of Human Reason”, both directed by Hossein Moradizadeh, will be shown in the Culture section.

“The Improvement of Human Reason” is based on a 12th-century philosophical treatise on human nature. It tells of a child who grows up alone on a remote island, learns to cover himself, defend himself and light a fire. He knows the sky and sees the world as a living creature, respecting plants and animals. One day, Absal arrives on the island and takes him to his land. But they are all too greedy and vain there and Havy decides to return to the island.

“Gilgamesh” recounts the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest literary work in the world. The earliest known version was written in Akkadian in the 19th century BC and best describes the human pursuit of immortality. Gilgamesh, the famous hero of Uruk, a city in the land of the Sumerians, in Mesopotamia, has a semi-divine semi-human character and fights for immortality throughout his life, failing many times.

“Iran Traditional Ice Houses” will be showcased in the Glimpses from the World category.

Director Mehdi Ahmadi shows that before the advent of technology, the differences between the various countries were evident in the world, in the production and consumption of ice. Perhaps the strangest way of preserving ice was the one in use in Iran.

“Felting” by Ehsan Amini, “Tilework” by Keyvan Ahmadi and “Saffron-Based Lifestyle” by Parisa Bajelan will compete in the Looks from the World section.

In “Felting” the focus is on the extinction of felting art in Isfahan, and in “Tilework”, the artisan Ilia tells how the art of ceramics is gradually disappearing in the central Iranian city.

“Saffron-Based Lifestyle” shows how saffron’s white bud and purple sprout come out of the soil at night and must be picked before sunrise so that the sun doesn’t cause its aroma to fade. This flower has a close relationship with people’s lifestyle and is a symbol of collaboration between family members.

Photo: “Gilgamesh” by Hossein Moradizadeh.

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“Presence in international events is one of the key parts of Iran’s national cinema and enjoys an important place in the policy of the country’s cinema management,” COI director Mohammad Khazaei said in a press release.

He noted that COI will soon announce “clear and transparent regulations” that feature the organization’s policy in the international arena.

He said that films produced by the private sector in the country have ignored the regulations in their screenings at international festivals.

“Based on the regulations, the films must obtain a screening license [from the COI] for any form of presence in foreign festivals,” he added.

Khazaei warned that in case of any violation of the regulations, filmmakers would face obstacles to screen their films in the country and to make their next film.

“It’s not good that an Iranian film misses its public premiere and streaming by VOD platforms for a screening in a foreign festival,” he said.

Based on the law, Iranian producers and filmmakers must obtain a production license from COI’s Supervision and Evaluation Office to launch a project. They also must receive a screening license after completing their project.

International festivals across the world are often interested in screening films from Iran’s independent cinema.

Traditionally, Iranian cultural officials believe that the independent Iranian films do not present a positive image of the country at the foreign festivals, and the organizers award the films for such an attitude.

Meanwhile, Saeid Rustai’s latest drama “Leila’s Brothers” starring Taraneh Alidoosti and Payman Maadi will be contending for the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from May 17 to 28.

In addition, the Iranian drama “Imagine” will be screened in the 61st edition of La Semaine de la Critique – Cannes Critics’ Week, which will be held in Cannes from May 18 to 26 during the Cannes Film Festival.

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The film follows a teenage boy named Yadoo living with his family and people under siege in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan in the early days of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The family is finally forced to migrate.

Produced by Mohammadreza Mesbah, the film brought Mehdi Jafari the Golden Butterfly for best director. Jafari also won the award of the International Centre of Film for Children and Young People – CIFEJ.

The award for best photography director was also given to Morteza Najafi for his collaboration in the film.

The festival, which opened last week in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, wrapped up with announcing the winners on Wednesday evening the Abbas Kiarostami Hall of the Farabi Cinema Foundation in Tehran.

Iranian drama “Sea Boys”, written and directed by Afshin Hashemi and Hossein Qasemi-Jami, won the award for best screenplay.

The film tells the story of two boys from northern and southern Iran who are forced to live separated from their families.

“Sea Boys” also was selected best film in the national competition.

Yasin Habibpur was selected as best actor for his role in the film.

The Croatian sci-fi “My Grandpa Is an Alien” co-directed by Marina Andree Skop and Drazen Zarkovic won the special award of the jury of children. Skop and Zarkovic also won the Golden Butterfly for best artistic achievement.

The special jury award was given to “Lucia” by Spanish director Juan Pato.

The film is about nine-year-old Lucia who goes on a field trip with her father. Suddenly, she finds herself alone in the middle of the woods anxiously awaiting the return of her father. Hours pass by and night falls, but no one shows up.

Actors Alireza Shojanuri and Ghazal Shakeri and director Mehrdad Oskui were the members of the jury.

The best music award went to the Indian drama “Sumi” directed by Amol Vasant Gole. Rohan Rohan has collaborated as a composer on this film.

“The Silence of the River” by Peruvian director Francesca Canepa was named best short.

In this film, Juan, a 9-year-old boy, lives with his dad in a floating house on the Amazon River. Through a dreamlike journey into the rain forest jungle, he will discover the truth about his dad.

“My Grandmother Matilde” by Mexican director Miguel Anaya Borja was picked as best animation.

Photo: Mehdi Jafari (R) receives the award for best director for his drama “Yadoo” from director Puran Derakhshandeh during the 34th Isfahan International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Tehran on October 13, 2021. (IIFFCY)

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