top iranian directors & writers 2023
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Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Iranian cinema as well as world cinema in the 21st century. His films have gained recognition for their focus on the human condition, and portrayals of intimate and challenging stories of internal family conflicts. In 2012, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. That same year, he also received the Legion of Honour from France.
Farhadi was born in Isfahan, Iran. At the age of 15, in 1987, he joined the Isfahan branch office of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society, which had been established for 4 years earlier and he made several short films. He is also a graduate of theatre, with a BA in dramatic arts and MA in stage direction from University of Tehran and Tarbiat Modares University, respectively.
While completing his studies, he wrote a number of radio plays for Iran's national broadcasting service and directed several television programs. In 2001 Farhadi co-wrote the screenplay for the political satire Ertefa-e past (Low Heights, 2002), with famed war film director, Ebrahim Hatamikia.
Farhadi's first feature film, Dancing in the Dust (2003), tells the story of a young man who is forced to divorce his wife and go hunting snakes in the desert in order to repay his debts to his in-laws. His next film, The Beautiful City (2004), is about a young man who is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
Farhadi's breakthrough came with his third film, About Elly (2009), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The film tells the story of a group of friends who go on a weekend trip to the Caspian Sea, and the secrets that are revealed over the course of the weekend.
Farhadi's next film, A Separation (2011), won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film tells the story of a middle-class Iranian couple who are going through a divorce, and the moral dilemmas they face as they try to decide what is best for their young daughter.
Farhadi's subsequent films, The Past (2013) and The Salesman (2016), were also critically acclaimed. The Salesman won a second Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Farhadi's latest film, A Hero (2021), was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of a man who is released from prison and tries to win back his wife's trust.
Farhadi's films are known for their their complex and suspenseful plots, their realistic characters, and their exploration of moral dilemmas. His films often deal with themes of family, relationships, and social class.
Farhadi is a master of creating suspense, and his films are often compared to those of Alfred Hitchcock. He is also a skilled director of actors, and his films have featured some of the most celebrated Iranian actors, including Shahab Hosseini, Leila Hatami, and Taraneh Alidoosti.
In 2022, Farhadi was accused of plagiarism by a former student, who claimed that he had stolen the idea for his film A Hero from a documentary she had made. Farhadi denied the allegations, and a court in Iran eventually ruled in his favor. However, the allegations have tarnished Farhadi's reputation and raised questions about his creative process.
Asghar Farhadi is one of the most important filmmakers of our time. His films are both entertaining and thought-provoking, and they offer a unique insight into Iranian society and culture. He is a true auteur, and his work is sure to be studied and admired for many years to come.- Director
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Massoud Kimiaei was born in Tehran in 1941. He became well known when in 1969 he directed his second film, Gheisar (1969), which was considered a turning point in the Iranian cinema; he depicted the ethics and morals of the romanticized poor working class of the Croesus' Treasure (1965) genre through his main protagonist, the titular Gheisar (1969). But Kimiaei's film generated another genre in Iranian popular cinema: the tragic action drama.
Without any academic training in cinema or theater, and with only a few years of experience as assistant director, Kimiai became a historical figure in the Iranian cinema. He learned film making from the movies, and of his early days of contact with the cinema. He recalls how he used to spend hours outside the movie theaters of Tehran, listening to the sound track of the films blaring from the defective loudspeakers fixed outside the cinema, and trying to visualize the action with the help of oral synopsis furnished by friends who had seen the movie.
His other lively memory from his childhood is the scene of battle between Rostam and Ashkbous (heroes of Ferdowsi's Book of Kings) painted on the back of the cart in which his father carried flour for bakeries. When the cart was in motion, the combatants seemed animated to the young Massoud who habitually walked behind the cart and tried to guess the end of the battle.
Kimiai had difficult childhood. He was restless and often got into fights, which, at times, ended in the police station.
Then came the period when Kimiai directed his energies to books. He read voraciously, especially books on cinema. That was followed by frequent visits to film studios in search of a job, until he met film director Samuel Khachikian, from whom he learned the first lessons in the techniques of film making, and began his film career in 1965 as Khachikian's assistant. But he was too young to be allowed independent work, and for some time, he had to be content with preparing publicity materials for American films.
When he first proposed a screenplay from which to make a film, the head of studio wouldn't believe Kimiai could make a film until the ambitious young man made a one-minute scene from his screenplay and that convinced the studio bosses that he could make professionally acceptable films.- Writer
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Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career as a filmmaker at the age of 30. Since then he has made many movies and has become one of the most important figures in contemporary Iranian film. He is also a major figure in the arts world, and has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his photography, short films and poetry. He is an iconic figure for what he has done, and he has achieved it all by believing in the arts and the creativity of his mind.- Visual Effects
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Dariush Mehrjui was born to a middle-class family in Tehran. He showed interest in painting miniatures, music, and playing santoor and piano. He spent a lot of time going to the movies, particularly American films which were un-dubbed and inter-spliced with explanatory title cards that explained the plot throughout the films. At this time Mehrjui started to learn English so as to better enjoy the films. The film that had the strongest impact on him as a child was Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves. At the age of 12, Mehrjui built a 35 mm projector, rented two-reel films and began selling tickets to his neighborhood friends. In 1959, Mehrjui moved to the United States to study at University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA) Department of Cinema. One of his teachers there was Jean Renoir, whom Mehrjui credited for teaching him how to work with actors. Mehrjui was dissatisfied with the film program due to its emphasis on the technical aspects of film and the quality of most of the teachers. He switched his major to philosophy and graduated from UCLA in 1964. Mehrjui started his own literary magazine in 1964, Pars Review. The magazine's intention was to bring contemporary Persian literature to western readers. During this time he wrote his first script with the intention of filming it in Iran. He moved back to Tehran in 1965. Back in Tehran, Mehrjui found employment as a journalist and screenwriter. From 1966 to 1968 he was a teacher at Tehran's Center for Foreign Language Studies, where he taught classes in literature and English language. He also gave lectures on films and literature at the Center for Audiovisual Studies through the University of Tehran.
Dariush Mehrjui made his debut in 1966 with Diamond 33, a big budget parody of the James Bond film series. The film was not financially successful. But his second feature film, Gaav, brought him national and international recognition. The film Gaav, a symbolic drama, is about a simple villager and his nearly mythical attachment to his cow. The film is adapted from a short story by renowned Iranian literary figure Gholamhossein Sa'edi. Sa'edi was a friend of Mehrjui and suggested the idea to him when Mehrjui was looking for a suitable second film, and they collaborated on the script. Through Sa'edi, Mehrjui met the actors Ezzatolah Entezami and Ali Nassirian, who were performing in one of Sa'edi's plays. Mehrjui would work with Entezami and Nassirian throughout his career. The film's score was composed by musician Hormoz Farhat. The film was completed in 1969. In the film, Entezami stars as Masht Hassan, a peasant in an isolated village in southern Iran. Hassan has a close relationship with his cow, which is his only possession (Mehrjui has said that Entezami even resembled a cow in the film). When other people from Hassan's village discover that the cow has been mysteriously killed, they decide to bury the cow and tell Hassan that it has run away. While in mourning for the cow, Hassan goes to the barn where it was kept and begins to assume the cow's identity. When his friends attempt to take him to a hospital, Hassan commits suicide. Gaav was banned for over a year by the Ministry of Culture and Arts, despite being one of the first two film in Iran to receive government funding. This was most likely due to Sa'edi being a controversial figure in Iran. His work was highly critical of the Pahlavi government, and he had been arrested sixteen times. When it was finally released in 1970, it was highly praised and won an award at the Ministry of Culture's film festival, but it was still denied an export permit. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and submitted to the Venice Film Festival where, without programming or subtitles, it became the largest event of that year's festival. It won the International Critics Award at Venice, and later that year, Entezami won the Best Actor Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Along with Masoud Kimiai's Qeysar and Nasser Taqvai's Calm in Front of Others, the film Gaav initiated the Iranian New Wave movement and is considered a turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. The public received it with great enthusiasm, despite the fact that it had ignored all the traditional elements of box office attraction. It was screened internationally and received high praise from many film critics. Several of Iran's prominent actors (Entezami, Nassirian, Jamshid Mashayekhi, and Jafar Vali) played roles in the film. While waiting for Gaav to be released and gaining international recognition, Mehrjui was busy directing two more films. In 1970 he shot Agha-ye Hallou (Mr. Naive), a comedy which starred and was written by Ali Nassirian. The film also starred Fakhri Khorvash and Entezami. In the film, Nassirian plays a simple, naive villager who goes to Tehran to find a wife. While in the big city he is treated roughly and constantly fooled by local hustlers and con artists. When he goes into a dress shop to purchase a wedding gown, he meets a beautiful young woman (Fakhri Khorvash) and proposes to her. The young woman turns out to be a prostitute who rejects him and takes his money, spending him back to his village empty handed but more world-wise. Agha-ye Hallou was screened at the Sepas Film Festival in Tehran in 1971 where it won awards for Best Film and Best Director. Later that year it was screened at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. It was a commercial success in Iran. After finishing Agha-ye Hallou in 1970, Mehrjui traveled to Berkeley, California and began writing an adaptation of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck for a modern-day Iranian setting. He went back to Iran later in 1970 to shoot Postchi (The Postman), which starred Nassirian, Entezami and Jaleh Sam. In the film, Nassirian plays Taghi, a miserable civil servant whose life spirals into chaos. He spends his days as an unhappy mail carrier and has two night jobs in order to pay his debts. His misery has caused impotence and he is experimented upon by an amateur herbalist who is one of his employers. His only naive hope is that he will win the national lottery. When he discovers that his wife is the mistress of his town's wealthiest landowner, Taghi escapes to the local forest where he experiences a brief moment of peace and harmony. His wife comes looking for him, and in a fit of rage Taghi murders her and is eventually caught for his crime. Postchi faced the same censorship issues as Gaav, but was eventually released in 1972. It was screened in Iran at the 1st Tehran International Film Festival and at the Sepas Film festival. Internationally it was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a special mention, the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it received the Interfilm Award, and the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight. In 1973 Mehrjui began directing what was to be his most acclaimed film, The Cycle Mehrjui got the idea for the film when a friend suggest that he investigate the black market and illicit blood traffic in Iran. Horrified with what he found, Mehrjui took the idea to Gholamhossein Sa'edi, who had written a play on the subject, "Aashghaal-duni". The play became the basis for the script, which then had to be approved by the Ministry of Culture before production could begin. With pressure from the Iranian medical community, approval was delayed for a year until Mehrjui began shooting the film in 1974. The film stars Saeed Kangarani, Esmail Mohammadi, Ezzatollah Entezami, Ali Nassirian and Fourouzan. In the film, Kangarani plays Ali, a teenager who has brought his dying father (Mohammadi) to Tehran in order to find medical treatment. They are too poor to afford any help from the local hospital, but Dr. Sameri (Entezami) offers them money in exchange for giving illegal and unsafe blood donations at a local blood bank. Ali begins giving blood and eventually works for Dr. Sameri in luring blood donors, despite spreading diseases in the process. Ali meets another doctor (Nassirian) who is attempting to establish a legitimate blood bank, and helps Dr. Sameri in sabotaging his plans. Ali also meets and becomes the lover of a young nurse, played by Fourouzan. As Ali becomes more and more involved in the illegal blood trafficking, his father's health worsens until he finally dies and Ali must decide what path his life will take. The films title, Dayereh mina, refers to a line from a poem by Hafiz Shirazi: "Because of the cycle of the universe, my heart is bleeding." The film was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture but encountered opposition from the Iranian medical establishment and was banned for three years. It was finally released in 1977, with help from pressure from the Carter administration to increase human rights and intellectual freedoms in Iran. Because of a crowded film marketplace, the film premiered in Paris, and then was released internationally where it received rave reviews and was compared to Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados and Pier Paolo Pasolini's Accattone. The film won the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1978. During this time, Iran was going through great political changes. The events leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 were causing a gradual loosening of strict censorship laws, which Mehrjui and other artists had great hopes for. While waiting for The Cycle to be released, Mehrjui worked on several documentaries. Alamut, a documentary on the Isamailis, was commissioned by Iranian National Television in 1974. He was also commissioned by the Iranian Blood Transfusion Center to create three short documentaries about safe and healthy blood donations. The films were used by the World Health Organization in several countries for years. In 1978, the Iranian Ministry of Health commissioned Mehrjui to make the documentary Peyvast kolieh, about kidney transplants.
After the Islamic revolution Mehrjui directed Hayat-e Poshti Madrese-ye Adl-e Afagh (The School We Went to) in 1980. The film stars Ezzatollah Entezami and Ali Nassirian and is from a story by Fereydoon Doostdar. The film was sponsored by the Iranian Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, whose filmmaking department was co-founded by Abbas Kiarostami. The film, seen as an allegory for the recent revolution, is about a group of high school students who join forces and rebel against their authoritative and abusive school principal. Film critic Hagir Daryoush criticized both the film and Mehrjui as propaganda and a work of the new regime more than Mehrjui himself. In 1981, Mehrjui and his family traveled to Paris and remained there for several years, along with several other Iranian refugees in France. During this time he made a feature-length semi-documentary about the poet Arthur Rimbaud for French TV, Voyage au Pays de Rimbaud in 1983. It was shown at the 1983 Venice Film Festival and at the 1983 London Film Festival. In 1985, Mehrjui and his family returned to Iran and Mehrjui resumed his film career under the new regime. In Hamoun (1990), a portrait of an intellectual whose life is falling apart, Mehrjui sought to depict his generation's post-revolutionary turn from politics to mysticism. Hamoon was voted the best Iranian film ever by readers and contributors to the Iranian journal Film Monthly. In 1995, Mehrjui made Pari, an unauthorized loose film adaptation of J. D. Salinger's book Franny and Zooey. Though the film could be distributed legally in Iran since the country has no official copyright relations with the United States, Salinger had his lawyers block a planned screening of the film at Lincoln Center in 1998. Mehrjui called Salinger's action "bewildering," explaining that he saw his film as "a kind of cultural exchange." His follow-up film, 1997's Leila, is a melodrama about an urban, upper-middle-class couple who learn that the wife is unable to bear children. Modern Iranian cinema begins with Dariush Mehrjui. Mehrjui introduced realism, symbolism, and the sensibilities of art cinema. His films have some resemblance with those of Rosselini, De Sica and Satyajit Ray, but he also added something distinctively Iranian, in the process starting one of the greatest modern film waves. The one constant in Mehrjui's work has been his attention to the discontents of contemporary, primarily urban, Iran. His film The Pear Tree (1999) has been hailed as the apotheosis of the director's examination of the Iranian bourgeoisie. Since his film The Cow in 1969, Mehrjui, along with Nasser Taqvai and Masoud Kimiai, has been instrumental in paving the way for the Iranian cinematic renaissance, so called the "Iranian New Wave."- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Soheil Beiraghi is an Iranian director, screenwriter and producer. "Me" (2016), "Cold Sweat" (2018) and "Unpopular" (2020) are the works of this young director. He started working in cinema as an assistant director in 2005 and after a decade of work as a programmer and assistant director in various films, he directed his first feature film called "Me" (2016). Beiraghi also has a background in theater directing and play writing.- Producer
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Mohsen Amiryoussefi was born in 1972. He graduated with a degree in mathematics from Isfahan University. After writing several screenplays for both screen and stage, he completed his first short film in 1997, based on a story by Kafka. His short film Stony Hands, and the documentary Caravan are some of the best-known and most influential short films in Iranian Cinema and have received numerous national and international awards.
In 2004 he directed his first feature film. Bitter Dream is the story of a corpse washer who is visited by death. This film was screened at the Director's Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival where it received rave reviews. Deborah Young the film critic for Variety magazine called it Iran's first dark comedy, showing a new side of Iranians with its destructive sense of humor. Bitter Dream received special mention of Golden Camera Award at Cannes, as well Young View Award at Director's fortnight. It was eventually screened at more than 50 international film festivals, receiving numerous awards including the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece (2004). The movie was widely screened in France in 2005.
Bitter Dream received praise from Iranian critics as well and was being considered for submission to the Oscars in 2005, but was suddenly banned! State media considered it offensive to Azrael, (the angel of death), humanistic and political.
In 2006 Amiryoussefi produced and directed Fire Keeper loosely based on Dante's Divine Comedy. The film is the story of a laborer who is planning on getting a vasectomy to avoid having children, but his father's ghost is against this idea. This film was banned before being screened and was severely criticized by state newspapers and various officials. After this, Amiryousefi was not able to work on any movies for several years. Fire Keeper was submitted to the Montreal Film Festival in 2009, where it received the Innovation Award.
Following this Amiryoussefi produced and directed the documentaries My Home (winner of the best documentary in 2011), and Kahrizak, Four Views (winner of the special jury prize at the Dubai Film Festival in 2012). In the latter film Amiryousefi directed the Hamlet in Kahrizak episode, which documents the efforts of a blind handicapped man in staging Hamlet at the Kahrizak asylum. The film was warmly received by the audience.
After six years, Mohsen Amiryoussefi was finally able to receive a permit for directing his third feature film in 2012. Lovable Trash is the story of an elderly woman who has one night to clear her house of any problematic items during the protests following the presidential elections of 2009. Amiryousefi wrote, directed and produced this film. While in mid-production many hardliners began expressing their opposition to this film hoping to have it stopped. However, Amiryousefi's latest project was eventually completed in total media silence.- Writer
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Mani Haghighi is an Iranian film director, writer, film producer, and actor. Haghighi started making movies in 2001.
Haghighi was educated in Iran and, from the age of 15, Appleby College in Canada. He took a BA in philosophy at McGill University in Montréal, where he studied under Charles Taylor and Brian Massumi, and directed plays including Pinter's Betrayal and Shakespeare's Macbeth. He then followed postgraduate studies at Guelph and Trent universities. He contributed a chapter to A Shock to Thought: Expression after Deleuze and Guattari, edited by Brian Massumi, and also translated Michel Foucault's This is Not a Pipe into Persian.
Between 2007 and 2016 Haghighi produced and directed two documentaries about the Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui. The shorter film Hamoun's Fans (2008) dealt with the phenomenal success of Mehrjui's classic cult film Hamoun (1989). Haghighi published an open call to everyone who considered themselves a fan of the film to write him a one-page explanation of their reasons for loving it. From the hundreds of responses he chose five people to tell their stories. The second film, Mehrjui: The 40 Year Report (2015), is an exploration of Mehrjui's entire oeuvre through detailed interviews with Mehrjui himself, as well as his collaborators and critics. The film won the Best Documentary Film Director Award from the Fajr Film Festival, Tehran.- Director
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Abdolreza Kahani is an award-wining Iranian director. He has a Master of Art in theatre from the University of Tehran. Kahani's career began by making experimental short films and documentaries at the age of thirteen. His first feature film "Dance with the Moon" was debuted in 2004. Kahani created eight feature films in his home country Iran, however, Some of his last films were banned from screening due to censorship laws. This left him with no choice but to leave Iran and move to France in 2015. However, despite the Iranian regime's antagonism against Kahani's works, his films were very successful both domestically and internationally, wining many awards from international film festivals such as Karlovy Vary and Thessaloniki. Since he left Iran, Kahani has been actively making films in various countries such as Thailand, France, and Canada. Today, Kahani considers himself a nomad director with having no belonging to one place or country. He enjoys creating in different places around the world and would like to continue to explore the world through the lens of cinema.- Writer
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Ali Zarnegar is known for No Date, No Signature (2017), Cause of Death: Unknown (2023) and Wednesday, May 9 (2015).- Writer
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Bahram Beizai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts. By 1961 he had already spent a lot of time studying-and researching- ancient persian and pre-Islamic culture and literature. This led him to studying Eastern Theatre and traditional Iranian theatre & arts which would help him formulate a new non-western identity for Iranian theatre. By 1961 he had already published numerous articles in various Arts and Literary Journals. In 1962 he made his first short film (4 minutes) in 8mm format. In the next two years he wrote several plays and published "Theatre in Japan". In 1971 he made his first feature film Ragbar ( Downpour ) which to this day remains one of the best Iranian films ever made.- Writer
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Fardin Ansari:- Bachelor of Cinema Directing and Diploma in Editing.
- Writer and Director of Six Short Fiction Films.
- Participation in prestigious domestic and foreign festivals, including:
- Tehran Short Film Festival (Oscar approved).
* Filmography: Cloud house / Alien / The wild / Fashion / Majan / Lady- Writer
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Farnoosh Samadi is an Iranian filmmaker who is graduated from Fine Art Academy in Rome. She worked as co-writer in Ali Asgari's award winning short films. She is also co-writer of a feature film with Ali Asgari which was developed at Cinefondation Residence. The Silence her first short film co-directed by Ali Asgari had its world premiere in competition at Cannes Film Festival 2016. Gaze is her second short film which has its world premiere in competition of Locarno Film Festival 2017. She is a member of Academy of Oscar.- Writer
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Born in Tehran, Iran, writer, director and producer, Ali Asgari is a prominent Iranian cinema figure with many International awards to his name. Two of his shorts (More Than Two Hours 2013 and The Silence 2016) were nominated for Palme d'Or at Festival de Cannes and The Baby was in short film competition of Venice Film Festival 2014. His films are concerned with precarious lives who live at society's margin in his native country Iran. His debut film Disappearance was developed at the Cinafondation residency of Festival De Cannes and had its world and North American premiere at Venice International Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival 2017. Until Tomorrow his second feature film was premiered in Berlinale 2022. Terrestrial Verses his Third feature film was premiered at Un certain regard section of Festival de Cannes 2023. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Director
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Abbas Ali Hatami was born in Tehran, Iran in 1944. He graduated from the College of Dramatic Arts and began his professional career as a writer of short TV screenplays and also as a playwright. Among his plays are: The Demon and the Bald Hassan, Adam and Eve, The Fisherman's Story, City of Oranges, Talisman and Silk. He began his professional film career in 1970 by writing and directing Hassan, the Bald (1970). In the following years, he developed a personal style that was characterized by melodious dialogue, traditional Iranian ambiance created through architecture and set design. His last film, World Champion Takhti, remained unfinished because of his death in 1996 due to cancer.- Director
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Vahid Jalilvand is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, actor, voice actor and film editor. His first directed film, Wednesday, May 9 (2015) (Chaharshanbeh, 19 Ordibehesht), has received massive admiration from multiple national and international film festivals. He received Fipersci Award in Best Film Horizons and International Critic's Week from 72nd Venice International Film Festival for this film. Jalilvand had further success with his next film No Date, No Signature (2017) (Bedoune Tarikh, Bedoune Emza). The film earned Jalilvand and his actor, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Orizzonti Awards of 74th Venice International Film Festival for best director and best actor, respectively.- Director
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Naser Taghvai is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. Naser Taghvai was born in Abadan, Iran. After early experiences as a story writer, he began filming documentaries in 1967. He made his debut, Tranquility in the Presence of Others, in 1970 and gained the attention of Iranian critics. He became famous by directing the TV series My Uncle Napoleon. His concern for the ethnography and atmosphere of southern Iran is notable in his films. Most of his works have been based on novels. Captain Khorshid is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, which won the third prize at the 48th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in 1988. In 1999 he directed a segment of the film Tales of Kish, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.- Director
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Feri Farzaneh was born on 2 July 1929 in Tehran. He is a director and writer, known for La femme et l'animal (1962), Cyrus le grand (1961) and Parisienne... Parisiennes (1962).- Writer
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Azad Jafarian was born in 1979. Azad is a writer and director, known for World War III (2022), Leila's Brothers (2022) and Love and Politics (2011).- Director
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Ida Panahandeh was born in 1979 in Tehran, Iran. She obtained a degree in Film Photography in 2002 and a Master's in Film Direction in 2005, both from the Arts University of Tehran, where she began her film career with several short films. After university, she was invited to direct films for Iran's National Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB) with which she won awards at numerous national festivals. In 2009 she took part in the Berlin 'Talent Campus'. Having as a central theme a woman's place in modern society of Iran, she has throughout her work, focused on women's rights. This she did with her debut, Nahid (2015), which won her worldwide acclaim. The film is about a young divorcee that will lose the custody of her son if she remarries. Nahid (2015) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won a special prize (Prix DE l'Avenir) and released in France by Memento Films. Nahid also released in theatres in many European countries afterwards. Screen Daily mentioned Ida Panahandeh as a welcome addition to the ranks of compassionate, social realist filmmakers that stretches from Vittorio De Sica to the Dardenne brothers. Her second feature Israfil (2017) was screened in BFI London film festival and won several awards at International festivals; the story of a middle-aged divorcee who meets her teenage love after twenty years. The Nikaidos' Fall (2018), her third feature is a co-production of Japan and Hong Kong with Naomi Kawase as the executive producer. The story of a man that after his only son's death, is under pressure to save the family's ancestral line as an only male in the family. The film was debut in Nara International Film Festival and released in Japan in January 2019, and then in a few East Asian countries. Titi (2020) her forth feature film was debut in Tokyo International Film Festival. The story of a physicist who's about to prove a thesis about the end of the world, that meets a wired surrogate mother who wants to deserve humanity and makes a room of her own.- Writer
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Arsalan Amiri, born in 1975 in Iranian Kurdistan, studied filmmaking at the Iranian Youth Cinema Society in Sanandaj-Kurdistan in 1995. He then obtained his BA in Film Directing from Tehran Art University, and his MA in Dramatic Literature from the University of Tehran. He started his filming career by directing, producing, and editing documentary films.
Amiri worked as a screenwriter and editor for a number of TV Movies for Iran's National Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB). These include The The Story of Davood and the Dove (2011) , a film produced by Kianoush Ayari and directed by Ida Panahandeh.
Amiri's first feature film working as both co-screenwriter and editor was Nahid (2015), a film directed by Ida Panahandeh that was nominated for best screenplay in Iran's Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF). Nahid (2015) was also screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Prix de l'avenir.
Villa Dwellers (2017) , directed by Munir Gheidi, was his second movie as a screenwriter, which earned him a nomination for best screenplay in 2017's Fajr Film Festival. This was followed by Israfil (2017) , his third film working as co-screenwriter, which was directed by Ida Panahandeh and screened in the BFI London Film Festival in the same year.
Later on, He worked again with Ida Panahandeh as a co-screenwriter and editor in The Nikaidos' Fall (2018) , which filmed in Japan. His cooperation with Ida Panahandeh continued in Titi (2020) , as producer and screenwriter, which was screened in the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival.
Amiri made his directorial debut in Zalava (2021) , a film that was shot during the Corona Pandemic in a village near Sanandaj-Kurdistan. Zalava (2021) garnered nominations in 10 sections in Fajr Film Festival in 2021, and won Best First Feature Director, Best Script, Best Supporting Actor, and special mention for its photography.
First international screening of Zalava was in 78th Venice international film festival that won dabble prize Fipresci (best film of parallel sections) and Grand Prize of 36th Venice international critics'week. premiere of Zalava in north America was started by 46th Toronto international film festival (TIFF2021). Zalava received awards Best Picture from Fantastic Fest Austin (2021) also won dabble prize from Duhokiff (2021) and has screened in festivals such as Rotterdam, Gothenburg, Glasgow, Sao Paulo, Morbido,...- Writer
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Parviz Shahbazi is a highly acclaimed Iranian filmmaker renowned for his independent films that prominently delve into social issues and the interplay between diverse generations. His cinematic journey has led him to grace some of the most prestigious film festivals worldwide, including the Cannes, Venice, and Berlin Film Festival, where he has received numerous awards for his storytelling prowess.- Actor
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Houman Seyyedi is an Iranian actor, director, screenwriter and editor. He has received various accolades, including six Crystal Simorghs-making him the only director to have three wins in Special Jury Prize category-two Hafez Awards, five Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Awards, a NETPAC Award and an Asian New Talent Award. His sixth film, World War III (2022) won the Orizzonti Award for Best Film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
Houman Seyyedi is an Iranian theater, television and cinema actor & director, known for his role in " The Endless Way " series.
His directing of short movies, including '35 Meters Below Sea Level' and 'Blue Tooth', earned him several awards at Tehran International Short Film Festival. He also directed his first long movie 'Africa' in 2010.
Seyyedi, who was the writer as well as editor of 'Africa', managed to receive an award for Best Movie in video works section of the 29 Fajr International Film Festival.
He has participated in several movies, including 'Fireworks Wednesday' (2005), 'Barefoot in Heaven' (2005), 'He Who Goes to Sea' (2006), 'The Wound on Eve's Shoulder' (2007), 'The Freeway' (2010), 'Thirteen' (2012), 'The Exclusive Line' (2013), 'Confessions of My Dangerous Mind' (2014), 'Buffalo' (2014), 'I am Diego Maradona' (2014), 'Sleep Bridge' (2015) and 'Profiles' (2015).- Director
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Kaveh Mazaheri, a highly respected figure among the fresh wave of Iranian independent filmmakers, has been celebrated for his unique style, profound narratives, and insightful portrayals of complex human relationships.
Mazaheri's short film RETOUCH has received widespread recognition, making a mark as the most acclaimed short film in the history of Iranian cinema. It has won over 90 international and several Oscar-qualifying awards, including those from prestigious festivals like Tribeca, Krakow, Stockholm, Tirana, and Palm Springs ShortFest in 2017. RETOUCH's accolades have earned it a special display at the Iranian Cinema Museum in Tehran. His latest short film, FUNFAIR, qualified for the Oscars in 2019.
Mazaheri embarked on his professional cinema career in 2020 with his film, BOTOX. Amid the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the film had a triumphant world premiere at the Torino Film Festival, earning the coveted Best Film and Best Screenplay awards. Additionally, at the Fajr International Film Festival, Iran's most prestigious film event, BOTOX received the accolade for the best debut feature film.با اینکه صادراتی واجاست ، ولی فیلمای بدی نساخته ! مخصوصاً بوتاکسش خوب بود .- Gholam-Hossein Saedi was born on 4 January 1935 in Tabriz, Iran. He was a writer, known for The Cow (1969), Tranquility in the Presence of Others (1972) and The Cycle (1977). He died on 23 November 1985 in Paris, France.
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He learned the basics of filmmaking at Karnameh Film School in Tehran-Iran. Now he is getting his master's degree in cinema at Tehran University of Dramatic Arts. So far he has made 5 short films. 'Not yet' is his most recent film, which was well received and had its national premiere at 33rd Tehran Short Film Festival in November 2016. It won the "Grand Prix" of the festival for best fiction and the "Art & Experience" award. Recently it won the "Grand Prix" for best fiction and the Netpac Award at 34th Busan International Short Film Festival and also "Best Asian short film" Award at 35th Fajr International film festival.- Actor
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Ako Zandkarimi was born in Sanandaj/Kurdistan/Iran at 1993. He started Filmmaking when he was just 15 years old and he was just a student in high school and that was the start of his passion to Cinema. after that he started to Write and direct films and Then in 2018 he started to Co-Direct his new films With Saman Hosseinpuor.- Director
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Mehrnoosh Fetrat is an Iranian filmmaker who's had a strong passion for literature and cinema since childhood. She received her MA in Cinema from the Tehran University of Art. She moved to the United States in 2017 after being awarded a University Fellowship--one of the most prestigious fellowships--in the MFA program in Film and Media Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she is currently a student.
She has written, produced and directed three short films War Game, America and Copsi which have been screened in many festivals and galleries such as BlackStar Film Festival, Tehran International Film Festival, Trenton Film Festival, Vox Populi Gallery, River Film Festival, Sundance Collab, London Iranian Film Festival, UFVA, and many others. America won Best Film and Best Editing at the Diamond Screen Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Film at the Frames Film Festival, Directed by Women at the Turkey Film Festival and others.
America is now available on Comcast's Streampix movie service. CFMDC--Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center--is the distribution company for her films. Her recently finished film, War Game is now in the distribution process. Currently, she is working on the script of Bed Bug which will be her next project. She runs the Utopia Film Club at Temple University which provides a place for all cinephiles to watch and discuss Avant-garde and alternative cinema. Utopia Film Club has had screenings every month since 2017.- Cinematographer
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Touraj Aslani was born on Dec.26, 1973 in Kermanshah, Iran. He has graduated in Graphics from Kermanshah conservatory and Film directing from Tehran Sooreh University 1999. He began to take photographs at the age of 10, and at the age of 14 he started his activities as an experimental cinematographer with an 8mm camera. He started his professional activities at age 25. He has been Shooting more than 100 Documentary, Short, Animation, Fiction and Experimental movies. In 2000 he became the youngest professional photographer in Iranian Cinema. More than 50 film as Director of Photography for Iranian and Iraqi and Turkey cinema and Investor, Executive manager and Producer of few fiction and documentary projects.9- Director
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Masoud Hatami is known for A Pair of Socks (2011) and Survival (2015).9- Writer
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Fereydun Gole was an Iranian screenwriter, film director, and film editor. He was active in producing urban drama films throughout the 1970s, dealing with such issues as the social stratification of Tehran. His most famous film was Beehive. After he died in 2005, the 2006 documentary film Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution was dedicated to him.7- Writer
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Amir Naderi is one of the most influential figures of 20th century Persian cinema. He developed his knowledge of cinema by watching films at the theater where he worked as a boy, reading film criticism, and making relationships with leading film critics. He began his career with still photography for some notable Iranian features. In the 1970s, Mr. Naderi turned to directing, and made some of the most important features of the New Iranian Cinema. In 1971, his directorial debut, GOODBYE, FRIEND, was released in Iran. Amir Naderi first came into the international spotlight with films that are now known as cinema classics, THE RUNNER (1985), and WATER, WIND, DUST (1989). THE RUNNER is considered by many critics to be one of the most influential films of the past quarter century. After expatriating to New York in the early '90s, Amir Naderi continued to produce new work. He was named a Rockefeller Film and Video Fellow in 1997, and has served as an artist in residence and instructor at Columbia University, the University of Las Vegas, and New York's School of Visual Arts. His US films have premiered at the Film Society of Lincoln Center/ MoMA's New Directors/ New Films series, the Venice, Cannes, Tribeca, and Sundance Film Festivals. His film SOUND BARRIER (2005) had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the prestigious Roberto Rossellini Prize at the Rome Film Festival. His last feature film VEGAS: BASED ON A TRUE STORY (2008) was in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the CinemAvvenire Best Film in Competition Prize and the SIGNIS Award. The film was also shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the Pusan International Film Festival and CineVegas in Las Vegas. His last three films MARATHON, SOUND BARRIER, and VEGAS were all shown at the FILMeX Film Festival in Tokyo.7- Amir Reza Koohestani was born in June 8th, 1978 in Shiraz, Iran. He was 16 when he began to publish short stories in local newspapers. Attracted to cinema, he took courses in directing and cinematography in 1995 and created two unfinished films.
After a brief experience as performer, he devoted his time to write his first plays: And the day never came (1999), which was never performed and The Murmuring Tales (2000) which received attracted critical acclaim in Tehran, during the 18th International Fadjr Theatre Festival.
With his third play, Dance On Glasses (2001), in tour for four years, Amir Reza Koohestani gained international notoriety and found the support of several European theatrical artistic directors and festivals.
Then follows the plays Recent Experiences (from the original text by Canadians writers Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, 2003) ; Amid The Clouds (first European co-production with Kunstenfestivaldesarts and Wiener Festwochen, 2005) ; Dry Blood & Fresh Vegetables (a twenty minutes performance, 2007) and Quartet: A Journey North (European co-production, 2008), all of them successfully welcomed in Europe.
Amir Reza Koohestani was also commissioned by the Schauspielhaus in Koln, where he wrote and staged Einzelzimmer (2006), and by the Nouveau Theatre DE Besancon, with Japanese director Oriza Hirata and French director Sylvain Maurice, to create the play Des Utopies ? (2009) on tour in France and Japan.
After some years of study in Manchester, Amir Reza Koohestani has returned back to Tehran since July 2009 and created the play Where Were You On January 8th? recently performed in La Colline - national theatre, as part of Festival d'Automne à Paris, and after a European tour.
In October 2011, despite finishing his military service, Amir Reza Koohestani created the adaptation of Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, successfully staged in Tehran for more than one month.7 - Director
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Jafar Panahi (Born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by an Iranian film at Cannes. Panahi was quickly recognized as one of the most influential film-makers in Iran. Although his films were often banned in his own country, he continued to receive international acclaim from film theorists and critics and won numerous awards, including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for The Mirror (1997), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle (2000), and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Offside (2006). His films are known for their humanistic perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished, and women. Hamid Dabashi has written, "Panahi does not do as he is told - in fact he has made a successful career in not doing as he is told." After several years of conflict with the Iranian government over the content of his films (including several short-term arrests), Panahi was arrested in March 2010 along with his wife, daughter, and 15 friends and later charged with propaganda against the Iranian government. Despite support from filmmakers, film organizations, and human rights organizations from around the world, in December 2010 Panahi was sentenced to a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media, or from leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage. While awaiting the result of an appeal he made This Is Not a Film (2011), a documentary feature in the form of a video diary in spite of the legal ramifications of his arrest. It was smuggled out of Iran in a flash drive hidden inside a cake and shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In February 2013 the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival showed Closed Curtain (2013) by Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi in competition; Panahi won the Silver Bear for Best Script. Panahi's new film Taxi (2015) premiered in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won Golden Bear, the prize awarded for the best film in the festival.6- Actress
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Maryam Moghadam was born in 1970 in Tehran, Iran. She is an actress and director, known for Ballad of a White Cow (2020), My Favourite Cake (2024) and Risk of Acid Rain (2015).6- Director
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Behtash Sanaeeha was born in 1980 in Shiraz, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for Ballad of a White Cow (2020), My Favourite Cake (2024) and Risk of Acid Rain (2015).6- Writer
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Mehrdad Kouroshniya is known for Ballad of a White Cow (2020) and Bi Aban (2021).6- Producer
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Mojtaba Mirtahmasb is known for This Is Not a Film (2011), Lady of the Roses (2008) and Saaze Mokhalef (2005).6- Writer
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Nima Javidi is an Iranian screenwriter and director, born in 1980. His first feature "Melbourne" (2014) which was the opening film in critics' week in Venice film festival(2014) has attended more than 90 festivals around the world including Tokyo film festival, Stockholm film festival , Zurich film festival, Cairo film festival, Mardel plata film festival, Shanghai film festival, Istanbul film festival, etc. He received 14 international awards for his first film "Melbourne" namely: Best Film in Cairo Film Festival (2014), Best Script in Stockholm Film Festival(2014), Best Script in Asia Pacific Awards(2014), Best Director and Best script in Gijon Film Festival(2014), etc. His next feature "The Warden" was shown in 63rd London film festival as its premier and attended more than 27 festivals around the world . His next script which is written with famous Iranian director Majid Majidi is the "Sun Children" (directed by Majid Majid) that attended in official section of Venice film festival(2020) and was among the 15 movies shortlisted in the foreign language film category at the 93rd Academy awards. His last project is a series named "The Actor" which won the Grand Prize in Series Mania Festival(2023) and Honorable Mention in Serien Camp Festival(2023) and nominated for Best Mini series, Best Script and Best Actor in Seoul Drama Awards(2023) Moreover he is a member of Asia Pacific Academy Awards and was a member of jury in 54th Gijon film festival (2016), 19th Tbilisi film festival (2018) and 2th Dostluk film festival (2019)6- Director
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Ebrahim Irajzad was born on 19 July 1981 in Iran. He is a director and actor, known for Searing Summer (2017), Killer Spider (2020) and The Woman with a Necklace (2013).6- Writer
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Saman Hosseinpuor was born in Saqqez/Kurdistan/Iran at January of 1993. He started acting in Theater when he was just 14 years old, He started Filmmaking at 2008 by making student short films. He started His work from Kamyaran(a city in Kurdistan) in 2006 with acting in theatre and afterwards He participated in the 22th Youth Film Festival as a Jury and Directed His first film which was awarded the silver directing medal in Qasedak National Film Festival. After that He started studying Cinematography and film making. In this period He continued His career & participated in more than Thirty short film projects which included working as, Writer, Editor, Cinematographer, Director and Director Assistant. He also Voluntarily worked as a journalist for journals such as Hamshahri (Hafte Name Docharkhe) and won several National Awards as a writer. He directed his first professional film "1-0" when he was at the university which was accepted in several international and national festivals. Nowadays He is a screenplay Writer, Editor and Director, and a full time filmmaker.6- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Kaveh Sabbaghzade is known for Italy Italy (2017), Romanticism of Emad & Tooba (2021) and Little Lady (2001).6- Director
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Zahra Ahooei was born on 25 August 1990 in Tehran, Iran. Zahra is a director and writer, known for Extra Time (2015), Sign Out (2017) and Prestige (2020).6- Director
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Born in 1960 in Tehran, Safi Yazdanian studied cinema in Tehran University of Art, and then in late 80's he began his career as a film critic and essayist. He wrote and translated books on Wim Wenders and Andrei Tarkovsky, and a book of his selected essays on cinema and art is published recently-2019- in Iran under the title "An Interpretation of Solitude". As filmmaker he began his work with making short and documentary films. His first feature was What's the Time in Your World? (2014)6 شاهین علیخانپور- Actor
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Arshia Zeinali is known for In Perspective (2018), How Should One Wait for Godot (2021) and Invasion (2023).6- Editor
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Kianoush Ayari was born on 14 May 1951 in Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran. He is an editor and director, known for The Abadanis (1993), To Be or Not to Be (1998) and Wake Up, Arezoo! (2005).5- Director
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Khosro Masumi was born in 1955 in Behshahr, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for The Bear (2012), Tradition of Lover Killing (2004) and Taboo (2015).5- Editor
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Farugh Farrokhzad was primarily a poet. Indeed, she is regarded as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century in Iran, which has a millennium of poetic tradition behind it. Although she only made one film, the 22 minute so-called documentary "The House is Black", this work is generally seen as the crucial precursor of the Iranian New Wave.5- Director
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Born in Tehran in 1972, Massoud Bakhshi got noticed for his very personal shorts, made between 1999 and 2010. Ranging from the serious ('Identification of a Woman', 1999) to the hilarious and biting (Tehran Has No More Pomegrenates! (2007)), from documentary to fiction, his body of work is varied and challenging. After a first foray into the realm of imaginative narration (the 12 minute Baghdad Barber (2008)), Bakhshi proves very successful with his first feature, A Respectable Family (2012), a noir thriller. Not content to be brave, the movie is well made, which makes its violent attack against the material and moral corruption that corrodes Iranian society all the more effective. An unforgettable experience for the viewer.5- Actress
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Pegah Ahangarani was born on 24 July 1984 in Arak, Iran. She is an actress and director, known for I Am Trying to Remember (2021), My Father (2023) and Trapped (2013).5- Editor
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Hamid Reza Ghorbani is known for A House on 41st Street (2016), Bone Marrow (2020) and About Elly (2009).5- Writer
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Majid Majidi was born on April 17, 1959 in Tehran, Iran to a middle class family. He started acting in amateur theater groups at the age of fourteen. After receiving his high school diploma, he started studying art at the Institute of Dramatic Art in Tehran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, his interest in cinema brought him to act in various films, notably Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Boycott (1986) where he played a frustrated communist and Ali Asghar Shadravan's The Execution (1986) where he played the role of real life character, Andarzgoo. Later, he started writing and directing short films. His feature film screenwriting and directing debut is marked by Baduk (1992), which was presented at the Quinzaine of Cannes and won awards at Tehran's Fajr Film Festival. Since then, he has written and directed many noteworthy films that won worldwide recognition, notably Children of Heaven (1997), winner of the Best Picture award at the Montreal International Film Festival and nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, The Color of Paradise (1999), which also won the Best Picture award from Montreal International Film Festival and set a new record of box office for an Asian film, and Baran (2001), which won several major awards worldwide, notably the Best Picture award at the 25th Montreal World Film Festival and received nomination for the European Film Academy Award. In 2001, during the Afghanistan anti-Taliban war, he produced Barefoot to Herat (2003), an emotional documentary about Afghanistan's refugee camps that won the Fipresci Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Majjid Majid has also received the Douglas Sirk Award in 2001 and the Amici Vittorio de Sica Award in 2003. In 2005, he directed The Willow Tree (2005) about a blind man who falls in love with someone other than his wife when he gets the chance to see again, which won four awards at the 2005 Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. He is one of Iran's most influential directors and his films have a simple and poetic feel to them.5- Director
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Mehrdad Khoshbakht is known for The Sound of My Foot (2011), Damascus Under Fire (2018) and Jaye Oo Digar Khali Nist (2005).5- Director
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Abolfazl Jalili was born in 1957 in Saveh, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for Delbaran (2001), The First Letter (2003) and Dance of Dust (1998).5- Writer
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Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.
Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him over 50 international awards from the prestigious film festivals like Cannes, Venice, Locarno... His film Kandahar has been chosen as one of the top 100 best movies of history of cinema by Times Magazine.
His fame as the most prominent filmmaker of Iran made him the subject of an identity theft by someone who wished to become a filmmaker. This incident turned to a famous film called Close up by Abbas Kiarostami.
Makhmalbaf has also taught his three children about the art of cinema. His older daughter Samira holds the record for the youngest filmmaker who have been selected for the official section of Cannes at the age of 17 with her first debut titled The Apple. Samira has also won the Grand Jury Prize of Cannes twice with her second and and third film titled The Blackboards and At Five In The Afternoon. Hana, Makhmalbaf's younger daughter, won the Crystal Bear of Berlin and the Grand Jury Prize of San Sebastian Film Festival with her first feature film.
At the age of 17 as a political activist Mohsen was shot by the police and spent 5 years in prison as a political prisoner. His fight and human right activities against dictatorship in Iran has continued till today. With his film Afghan Alphabet he managed to change a law in Iran which resulted in opening the door of schools and universities for education of over half million Afghan children refugee in his country. Makhmalbaf, the prestigious Manhae Peace Award winner, had also established his own NGO in Iran in which he executed 82 different human right projects for helping women and children of Afghanistan.
Since 2009, all 40 films of Makhmalbaf family alongside Mohsen's 30 published book are banned in his homeland. The Iranian government has also levied a ban on Makhmalbaf's name in the media. In 2013, the Iranian government also removed over 120 international awards of Makhmalbaf family from the museum of cinema in Iran.5- Director
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Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even considered as the most famous short ever made in Iran. This success allowed Bahman Ghobadi to make several feature films, the best known being his first, "A Time for Drunken Horses" (2000), the first Kurd film in the history of Iran. This film and all the the others made by Ghobadi were hits in the festival circuit, garnered dozens of awards but were little seen or not seen at all in his native country. His last movie to date, filmed without official permit, rapidly and feverishly, "No One Knows About Persian Cats" (2009) is a remarkable semi-documentary about underground indie music in Tehran.5 4 که مال سالحزاده- Actor
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Hamid Reza Azarang is known for Once Upon a Time in Abadan (2021), Inadaptable (2016) and The Queen (2012).4- 4
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Oktay Baraheni (born 1974) is an Iranian Film director and writer . He is a graduate of the Fine Arts York University Toronto, Canada with a degree in Cinema, His successful career includes several feature films, several short films and a documentary Khatab Be Parvaneha, which is a well-known Iranian poet and writer in relation to his father, Reza Baraheni, As well as him first feature film was The Pole Khaab, which was screened in the new film section of the Fajr Film Festival in 2015 And in 2016, its public release began, He also has a background in journalism4- Director
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Kamran Shirdel was born in 1939 in Tehran, Iran. He is a director and editor, known for Tanhaee-ye avval (2002), The Morning of the Fourth Day (1972) and Gas, Fire, Wind (1986).4- Director
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Ebrahim Golestan is an Iranian filmmaker and literary figure with a career spanning half a century. He has lived in Sussex, United Kingdom, since 1975. He was closely associated with the controversial and eminent Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad until her death, whom he met at his studio in 1958. He is said to have inspired her to live more independently. Golestan was married to his cousin, Fakhri Golestan. He is the father of Iranian photojournalist Kaveh Golestan, and Lili Golestan, translator and owner and artistic director of the Golestan Gallery in Tehran, Iran. His grandson, Mani Haghighi, is also a film director. His other grandson Mehrak, is a rapper. Golestan was a member of Tudeh Party of Iran, but he broke away in January 1948. After Farrokhzâd's death, Golestân was protective of her privacy and memory. For example, in response to the publication of a biographical/critical study by Michael Craig Hillmann called A Lonely Woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and Her Poetry (1987), he published a lengthy attack against Hillmann in a Tehran literary magazine, to which Hillmann responded to the attack at length in an article part of which was also published in the same Tehran literary magazine and which is available online at Academia.edu/Michael Hillmann under the title "Az Shâ'eri-ye Nâder Nâderpur to Fârsi'khâni dar Qalb-e Tekzâs, Javâbiyeh'i be Ebrâhim Golestân." In February 2017, on the occasion of 50 years after Farrokhzad's death, the 94-year-old Golestan broke his silence about his relationship with Forough, speaking to the Guardian's Saeed Kamali Dehghan. "I rue all the years she isn't here, of course, that's obvious," he said. "We were very close, but I can't measure how much I had feelings for her. How can I? In kilos? In meters?"4- Editor
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Ehsan Taleghani (born 19 August 1993) is an Iranian film director and film editor. He is the founder of Graph Media and Art Agency. So far, he has made more than 600 videos in the form of short films, documentaries, television programs, internet programs, video clips, advertising teasers. He is best known for the production and direction of "Khalvate Sepid" program. His first serious work as a short film director is Wormhole (Kermchaleh). Most of his works have human and moral themes and are usually sense-oriented.4- Director
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Hossein Shahabi was an Iranian film director, screenwriter and film producer. He was born in 1967 in Tabriz, Iran. After graduating, he studied classical music at Tehran University then spent a few years teaching music. In 1996, he made his first (short) film (Hundred Times Hundred), on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of cinema, and received a prize at the (one off) festival, established for the same occasion.
He wrote, directed, and produced 20 shorts, 10 fictional features (for video release in the Iranian market), and 3 feature films for theatrical release, some of which have won prizes in the local and international film festivals. The Bright Day (2013), his debut film, was well received by the critics and was nominated in four categories at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran (Feb. 2013), winning two Honorary Diplomas.
He died of natural causes on 22 January 2023 in Iran.4- Producer
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Mohammad Rasoulof was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1972. He is an independent director, writer and producer. He studied sociology. Rasoulof started his filmmaking with documentaries and short films. For his first film 'Gagooman'(The Twilight, 2002) Rasoulof won the prize for the best film at the Fajr Film Festival in Iran. After his second film 'Jazireh Ahani' (Iron Island, 2005) he began to have problems with the censorship system in Iran and his possibilities for the further production and screening of films were strongly limited or prohibited. To this date Mohammad Rasoulof has produced five feature films which none of have been shown in Iran due to the censorship, while his films are enjoyed by a broad audience in cinemas and festivals outside of Iran. Until 2010 Rasoulof mostly used metaphoric forms of storytelling as his means of expression in his films. Since then he has shifted to using more direct forms of expression. In March 2010 Rasoulof was arrested on set at a filming location together with Jafar Panahi while they were directing a film together. In the following trial, he was sentenced to six years in jail. This sentence was later reduced to one year. He was then released on bail and is still waiting for the sentence to be executed. Mohammad Rasoulof has won many prizes for his films. In 2011, he won the prize for best director in Un Certain Regard for his film 'Bé Omid é Didar'(Goodbye, 2011) at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2013 he won the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes for the film 'Dast-Neveshteha-Nemisoozand'(Manuscripts Don't Burn, 2013) from the International Federation of Film Critics in Un Certain Regard.4- Cinematographer
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Rasool Davari is known for Invasion (2023), Crusher (2019) and How Should One Wait for Godot (2021).4- 4
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Parisa Bakhtavar is an Iranian film and television director. She is famous for her television series, Posht-e Konkooriha, which followed the lives of high school seniors studying for their college entrance exams. Her first film, Dayere-ye Zangi is a comedy filmed in Tehran starring Mehran Modiri.
She is married to Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi.4- Actor
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Hadi Naderi is known for Gold Carrier (2018) and Exempt Forever (2012).4- Producer
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Born in 1973, Majid Barzegar has been a major force behind the development and production of a great number of Iranian independent documentary, short and feature films, most of which have been awarded and showcased at prestigious international film festivals including Berlinale, San Sebastian, Rotterdam, São Paulo, Thessaloniki and many more. His feature debut, Rainy Seasons (2010) has won the Jury's Special Mention Award at the 34th Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil. His second feature film, Parviz, (2012) has won numerous awards including the Jury's Special Mention Award at the 2012 San Sebastian International Film Festival and the NETPAC Award at the 2012 Asiatica Film Mediale, Rome, Italy. His third feature film, A Very Ordinary Citizen, (2015) premiered at Chicago International Film Festival and has been awarded the Sepanta award for the best feature film at the IFF San Francisco. His fourth feature film, The Rain Falls Where It Will (2020) has premiered at the 50th edition of Rotterdam International Film Festival. A critically acclaimed writer, director, producer and photographer, Majid Barzegar has also been invited three times to the official selection of Berlin International Film Festival as a producer in this last five years with his last attendance for Leakage in 2019. He also participated in the Cinefondation section of Cannes Film Festival as a producer in 2018 with Like a Good Kid. Among the films he has produced, A Minor Leap Down (2015) has won the respectable FIPRESCI prize in the Panorama section of Berlin International Film Festival. Mamiroo (2015) has won the FIPRESCI prize at 20th Busan International Film Festival. Valderrama (2016) has been nominated for the best feature debut at the Berlin International Film Festival. He has also been the president of the board of the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) from 2008 to 2016. Majid Barzegar has also been active as a photographer for many years now and his last photo exhibition, Time-Lapse was held in KAMA gallery in London.4- Actor
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Hadi Hejazifar is an Iranian film and television actor and theater director. Among his films at Ghobar Station, he mentioned the story of Nimroz, the lottery, dinner time, Atabay and the no-fly zone. He won the Theater House (Cinema) and Critics' Festival and was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 35th Fajr Film Festival. In the online news site poll, it was made by the audience as the best supporting actor in the 35th Fajr Festival.4- Director
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Bahman Farmanara is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Bahman Farmanara is the second son in a family of four brothers and one sister. The family business was Textile and he was the only son who did not join the business and went off to United Kingdom and later on to United States to study acting and directing. He graduated from University of Southern California with a BA in Cinema in 1966. After returning to Iran and doing military service, he joined the National Iranian Radio and Television. He produced some major films, including Abbas Kiarostami's first feature, The Report (1977), Bahram Bayzai's The Crow (1977), Khosrow Haritash's Divine One (1976), Mohammad-Reza Aslani's Wind and Chess (1976) and Valerio Zurlini's The Desert of the Tartars (1977 co-production with Italy and France). Farmanara moved to France and then to Canada in 1980, establishing a distribution company and a film festival for children and young adults in Vancouver. He returned to Iran in the mid-1980s. He made and starred in Fragrance of Jasmine in 2000, which won several prizes from the International Fajr Film Festival, including The Best Film and The Best Director awards. He is shooting his last film Del Divaneh in north of Iran.4- Director
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Graduated in the field of film directing from The Faculty of Dramatic Arts and joined the Iranian TV in 1973 beginning her career as continuity girl and assistant director. Later on, she made a number of short documentaries and directed her first picture 'Kharej az Mahdudeh (1986)'. Her next films are 'Zard-e Ghanari (1988)', 'Pul-e Khareji (1989)', 'Nargess (1992)' and 'Rusari Abi (1995)'.4- Director
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Rouhollah Hejazi is known for The Dark Room (2018), Among the Clouds (2008) and Death of the Fish (2015).4