Iranian Film Festival
Encyclopedia
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
held annually in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Until now, the festival has taken place in Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
(2007), Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
(2008), and in 2009 the festival will take place in filmtheatre De Fabriek in Zaandam.
Aim of the festival
The Iranian Film Festival focuses on the film culture of contemporary IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. The festival mainly shows the work of young, independent Iranian
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
filmmakers, who give their vision of Iran with special attention to political and social aspects of Iranian society. In 2006 the festival only lasted one day, but because of its success it was expanded to three days in 2007.
The Iranian Film Festival was set up by an independent organisation, that cooperates with independent filmmakers
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
, distributors and production companies from Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. In this manner, the organisation has the freedom to compose its own program. The director of the Iranian Film Festival is Parwin Roghyeh Mirrahimy.
Program
The Iranian Film Festival has a diverse program consisting of films, documentaries, short films, video-clips, children's movies and animation. The festival also organizes discussions with the directors of the films, talk-shows, music performances and photo-exhibitions.Examples of films and documentaries that were shown during the festival in the past years are: Children of Heaven
Children of Heaven
Children of Heaven is a 1997 Iranian adventure comedy-drama film written and directed by Majid Majidi. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998...
(Majid Majidi, 1997), “Nose, Iranian Style“ (Mehrdad Oskouei, 2005), “It’s Always Late for Freedom” (Mehrdad Oskouei, 2006), “Navel” (Mohammad Shirvani, 2004), "Do you have another apple?" (Bayram Fazli, 2006), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Paronnaud, 2007).
Some films that were part of the program have been a matter of controversy in Iran, like 20 Fingers
20 Fingers (film)
20 Angosht, released in English-speaking markets as 20 Fingers, is a 2004 Iranian film directed by Mania Akbari. It stars the director and co-lead Bijan Daneshmand as a couple discussing their relationship and arguing, shot in several long takes on a DV camera.Due to the film dealing with...
(Mania Akbari, 2004) and "Mainline" (Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Moshen Abdolvahab, 2006).