‘Butterfly Stroke’, directed by Mohammad Kart, brought the best supporting actress award for Tannaz Tabatabai’s role in Kart’s directorial debut which also brought Amir Aqaei the best supporting actor honor.

The best editor award went to Esmaeil Alizadeh. The film also received the best sound engineer, and audience choice award.

The film narrates the story of some ostracized people from poverty-stricken neighborhoods in Tehran. The people have to pretend to be strong if they want to survive the brutality of their environment, ifilmtv.com reported.

A number of top-rating Iranian actors such as Mohammad-Javad Ezzati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Mahlaqa Baqeri, Pantea Bahram and Amir Aqaei star in the film.

‘Day Zero’, directed by Saeid Malekan, brought the best costume design award for Amir Malekpur and best special effects for Mohsen Ruzbehan.

Malekan’s film also received Best Film in the New Look section and the Special Jury Prize.

The Golden Simorgh for the Best Film, from the national point of view, also went to this movie.

The film is about Iran’s intelligence and police operations to arrest the Jundallah terrorist group founder and leader Abdul-Malik Rigi.

Iranian actors Amir Jadidi and Saeid Soheili play two lead roles in the project alongside a couple of international actors.

‘The Sun’, Majid Majidi’s drama about child labor in Tehran, won the Crystal Simorgh for Best Film.

Majidi and his co-producer Amir Banan received their award during the closing ceremony of the festival organized at Tehran’s Milad Tower.

The film, co-written by Majidi and Nima Javidi, won the award for Best Screenplay.

The film also received the Best Set Design award for Keyvan Moqaddam.

A cast of Iran’s A-list film stars, including Ali Nassirian and Tannaz Tabatabaei, and some students of a special school for child workers in the slums of Tehran played roles in the movie. The group of child workers received honorable mentions.

Majidi’s film narrates the story of a child who works in a tire graveyard and his mother is hospitalized because of mental illness. The deprived child who is living in a poor neighborhood is told by one of his neighbors that there is a treasure in the basement of his school. So the child, accompanied by his friends, gets involved in an adventure to find the treasure.

The 38th edition of the festival kicked off on February 1 and closed on February 11.

Since its establishment in 1982, the Fajr Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of Iranian cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Culture Ministry, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran every year.

The international version of the festival will be held in April 2020.

Over 150 films apply for 38th Fajr Film Festival

Over 150 films apply to attend the 38th Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

Some 151 titles, including 115 feature films and 36 documentaries, have applied to take part at the 38th edition of the Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

As the deadline for entries came to an end, the Public Relations office of the Fajr Film Festival announced that 115 feature films and 36 documentaries filled out the application form to attend the event.

Some 37 movies made by first-time filmmakers are among the submitted feature films, according to the report.

Photo Gallery of Iran’s 38th Fajr Film Festival

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The event was attended by Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, Culture Minister Abbas Salehi, Director of the 36th Fajr Film Festival Ebrahim Darougheh-Zadeh and Director of Cinema Organization of Iran Mohammad-Mahdi Heidarian.

President Hassan Rouhani in a message to the 36th Fajr Film Festival, which was read by Culture Minister Salehi, said cinema is one of the most effective cultural and artistic means that man has discovered to convey his messages, and civilizational heritages and achievements.

“Our cinema should once again identify its cultural and civilizational domain and while attaching significance to ‘religious and national culture’ as well as ‘Iranian problems’ as its central issues, should also try to have a greater share of the international economy in the visual industry. In order to achieve this goal, we should continuously promote the art and culture of other lands and our national and international capacities.”

Through expressing and putting forth new problems and viewpoints, cinema can prepare the society to encounter them, the president said in his message, adding cinema can grant psychological peace to the society, preserve social stability and consolidate law and ethic which are regulators of social relations.

The full list of winners are:

Best Film Crystal Simorgh was granted to ‘The Lost Strait’ by Saeed Malekan. The other nominees for the award were ‘Bomb: A Love Story’, ‘In the Levant Time’, ‘The Woodpecker’, ‘Underwater Cypress’, ‘Truck’ and ‘The Little Rusty Brains’.

Simorgh from the National Point of View was given to Hamed Hosseini for ‘Underwater Cypress’ and Saeed Sa’di. Hooman Seyyedi managed to win the audience Crystal Simorgh for ‘The Little Rusty Brains’.

The nominees for Best Director award were Ebrahim Hatamikia for ‘In the Levant Time’, Bahram Tavakkoli for ‘The Lost Strait’ and Behrouz Shoeibi for ‘The Woodpecker’, Hooman Seyyedi for ‘The Little Rusty Brains’, Kambuzia Partovi for ‘Truck’ and Mohammad Ali Bashe Ahangar for ‘Underwater Cypress’. However, two Crystal Simorghs for Best Director went to Hatamikia and Tavakkoli.

The Special Jury Prize of the 36th edition of the festival went to ‘Bomb: A Love Story’ by Peyman Mo’adi.

Best screenplay awards were proudly presented to Kambuzia Partovi for ‘Truck’ (which he gave to Saeed Aqakhani) and Hooman Seyyedi for ‘The Little Rusty Brains’ which was his second award in the prestigious festival.

Appreciating all the six nominees in the best actor category, the jury awarded honorary diploma to Amin Hayaei for his performance in ‘Flaming’ and Amir Jadidi for ‘The Lost Strait’ and ‘Cold Sweat’.

The long list of nominees in the Best Actress category was made up of names such as Baran Kosari for ‘Cold Sweat’ and Sara Bahrami for ‘The Woodpecker’, Shabnam Moqadami for ‘Don’t Be Embarrassed’, Mahnaz Afshar for ‘Woodpecker’, Hanieh Tavassoli for ‘The Misunderstanding’ Mahoor Alvand for ‘Istanbul Juncture’, but the award was given to Sara Bahrami.

Crystal Simorgh for best supporting actress awards went to Sahar Dolatshahi for her role in ‘Istanbul Juncture’ and ‘Cold Sweat’. She competed for the accolade with Leyli Rashidi in ‘Cold Swet’, Negar Abedi in ‘The Woodpecker’, Hoda Zeinolabedin in ‘Cold Sweat’.

This is while the Crystal Simorgh for best supporting actor award was given to Jamshid Hashempour for his role in ‘The Woodpecker’ (his daughter received the prize on behalf of her father).

Crystal Simorgh for Best Short Film was given to ‘AniMal’ by Bahram Ark, Bahman Ark.

Simorgh for Best Visual Effect went to Farid Nasser-Fassihi for the film ‘Istanbul Juncture’ by Mostafa Kiayee.

Special Effect Simorogh was presented to Mohsen Roozbehani for the film ‘The Lost Strait’, but he was not present and his son received the award.

The Simorgh for Best Makeup Artist went to Saeed Malekan for ‘The Lost Strait’.

Abbas Bolvandi for the film ‘Underwater Cypress’ won the Best Set Design Simorgh, while Sara Khaledi-Zadeh won the Best Costume Design Simorgh for the film ‘Bomb: A Love Story’.

Simorgh for the Best Sound Editing was given to Alireza Alavian for both ‘The Little Rusty Brains’ and ‘In the Levant Time’.

Rashid Daneshmand in the ‘the Lost Strait’ managed to win the Best Sound Recording Simorgh.

Karen Homayounfar for ‘In the Levant Time’ received the Best Music Simorgh while the Best Editing award was presented jointly to Bahram Dehqani and Behnam Najjarian for the film ‘Cold Sweat’.

Alireza Zarrindast won the Best Cinematography Crystal Simorgh for ‘Underwater Cypress’ defeating ‘Bomb: A Love Story’ (Mahmoud Kalari), ‘The Lost Strait’, (Hamid Khozouie Abyane), ‘Cold Sweat’ (Farshad Mohammadi) and ‘The Little Rusty Brains’ (Peyman Shadmanfar).

Best film in Art and Experience Cinema went to Hooman Seyyedi in the film ‘The Little Rusty Brains’.

Reza Maqsoodi won the Best Debut Simorgh for the film ‘Don’t Be Embarrassed’.

The panel of jury for the official competition included filmmakers Kamal Tabrizi and Rasoul Sadr-Ameli, cinematographer Bahram Badakhshani and film expert Hassan Khojasteh.

Film critic Khosro Dehqan, producer Fereshteh Taerpur and actor Mohammadreza Foroutan were other members of the jury.

The event began on February 1.

Established in 1982 as Fajr International Film Festival, the event celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to local and international films.

Since its establishment, the Fajr Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of Iranian Cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Culture Ministry, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran.

The post Photo: 36th Fajr Film Festival winners honored appeared first on IRAN This Way.

Addressing the gathering, Head of Cinema Organization and Deputy Culture Minister Hojatollah Ayoubi appreciated Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti who boycotted this year’s Oscar Academy Awards ceremony in a show of protest against US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose visa bans on Iranians, IRNA reported.

Last week, Alidoosti took to Twitter and Instagram to slam Trump’s planned visa bans, which she described as ‘racist’ and ‘unacceptable’.

The participants in the prestigious event also paid respect to the heroic Iranian firefighters who lost their lives in the tragic Plasco incident on January 26, 2017.

Meanwhile, four veteran Iranians active in film industry including Mohammad Kasebi, Gholamreza Mousavi, Touraj Mansouri and Farhad Tohidi also received lifetime achievement awards at the 35th Fajr Film Festival.

The festival will run in Tehran and several other Iranian cities from January 29 to February 9.

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