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Vahid Vakilifar :: Director of Rhinos Conquered The Middle East (2024)
The director, whose films have appeared at festivals like Rotterdam, Tribeca, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, and Antalya, embraces a style distinct from the traditional approach of Iranian cinema..

K9 :: Sailing Against the Tide :: Vahid Vakilifar, An Independent Filmmaker
Vahid Vakilifar's fourth film, K9, is an intoxicating visionary sci-fi that believes in the power of light despite the darkness consuming the world. Even in the bloodiest images there is at least a glimmer of hope..

Movie Review :: Daddio (2024)
Dialogue can lie, but faces tell the truth. Stories are told through faces. It takes enormous trust on the part of a director to allow this to happen, to let the faces do most of the heavy lifting. A two-character film with wall-to-wall dialogue. Dakota Johnson's and Sean Penn's faces fill..

‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘Seed of the Sacred Fig,’ ‘The Room Next Door’ Lead European Film Award Nominations
The 37th European Film Awards, which take place annually in the lakeside Swiss city of Lucerne, have unveiled their nominations for 2024. Unsurprisingly, the list is led by French..

VALENCIA 2024 :: Review: A Bathroom of One's Own
“I have never known why people like the smell of napalm in the morning. Nor why it is strange that I like the smell of the bathroom. You know, that dense, sometimes fruity aroma, but for me the bathroom is the only place where I can..”

New York 2024 Review :: NO OTHER LAND Chronicles Living Under Occupation
A co-production between Palestine and Norway, the film was selected for the Panorama section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, winning..

"My Favorite Cake" :: film directors accused of "Spreading Corruption" in a new case
In addition to "Propaganda Against the Regime", they have also been accused of two new charges, including "spreading corruption through the production of vulgar films and spreading..

‘All We Imagine as Light’ and ‘April’ Lead Nominations for Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Two films by women directors, Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “April” lead the nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards..

Trump Campaign staff Calls "The Apprentice" Malicious Defamation
US presidential candidate Donald Trump's legal team are reaching out for Ali Abbasi, "The Apprentice" Danish-Iranian film director. The story of Trump is also the story of the development of the perception of reality in our..

Azar Nafisi's READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN is now a film!
The autobiographical story of a fearless teacher who secretly gathers seven of her female students to read forbidden Western classics in revolutionary Iran. It is directed by Eran Riklis, written by Marjorie David..

Could ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Cause the Academy to Rethink How Countries Select International Oscar Candidates?
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s politically-charged thriller is becoming..

TOKYO 2024 :: EXCLUSIVE: Trailer for Roya Sadat’s historical drama film Sima’s Song
The movie, premiering at Tokyo, tells a tale of friendship and ideological clashes as two women navigate the complexities of Afghanistan's shifting political landscape..

TOKYO 2023 :: Film Review :: Maria by Mahdi Asghari Azghadi :: A captivating thriller noir
“Maria” is a captivating thriller noir that remains interesting from beginning to end, while making a very intriguing comment about the impact of cinema..

Tokyo film festival reveals 2024 Line-up with strong Asian presence
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which includes world premieres of features from China, Japan and Hong Kong among its competition strands..

WARSAW 2024 :: The 40th Warsaw Film Festival :: Main programme
This year’s edition of the Warsaw Film Festival, unfolding between 11 and 20 October, will present 84 feature films, amongst which 26 world premieres, 18 international premieres, 6 European premieres, 5 Eastern European..

TIFF 2023 :: Farhad Delaram :: Director of Achilles
Writer-director Farhad Delaram made this film as the bloody crackdown on protesters began in his home country. His feature debut is a testament to the magnitude of collective cracks that - when amassed - can tear down walls..

VENICE 2024 Awards LIVE: The awards of the 81st Venice Film Festival
The list of winners is being unveiled at the festival's closing ceremony. “Cinema is in great shape.” These were the words of Isabelle Huppert, the chair of the jury, which has handed the Golden Lion to director Pedro Almodóvar..

VENICE 2024 Orizzonti Extra :: Nader Saeivar :: Director of The Witness
“The new generation wants to win using forgiveness and beauty”. VENICE 2024: The Iranian director explains how he intended to commemorate the women’s movement and its non-violent forms of protest..

VENICE 2024 International Film Critics’ Week • Milad Tangshir • Director of Anywhere Anytime
“I wouldn’t just remake a timeless masterpiece – I’m not crazy”. The director explains how a regular bicycle can, for some people, mean the difference between survival or simply not..

VENICE 2024 :: International Film Critics’ Week :: Awards
Vietnam's Don’t Cry, Butterfly wins the Grand Prize at Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week. US title Homegrown scooped the prize for Best Technical Contribution, while Jethro Massey’s Paul & Paulette Take a Bath snagged the Audience Award..

VENICE 2024 Out of Competition • Thomas Vinterberg • Director of Families Like Ours
The acclaimed director talks about his choice of subject, his creative process and whether there’s a Danish film wave still out there. “You could say that we inspired COVID, rather than..”

Venice 2024 :: ‘The Witness’ :: Director Talks Iran Situation, Working With Jafar Panahi (EXCLUSIVE)
“The Witness,” premiering at the Venice Film Festival, has sold to Benelux, France and No.mad Entertainment. Directed by Nader Saeivar, and co-written by Saeivar and Jafar..

VENICE 2024 Out of Competition • Amos Gitai • Director of Why War
What fuels the human need to destroy and kill? Why do people go to war with each other? The Israeli director offers a kaleidoscopic film essay on war, fuelled by a historic exchange of letters between Einstein and Freud..

TIFF 2024 :: Offers a stellar lineup of highly anticipated films
Another September, another Toronto International Film Festival. This year feels particularly special, like there’s something in the pre-festival air. Perhaps it’s because of the stellar lineup, with other festival heavy hitters..

TIFF 2024 :: Seven Days :: Haft Rooz :: WORLD PREMIERE
Written by Mohammad Rasoulof — also at the Toronto Film Festival with The Seed of the Sacred Fig — directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and shot by Mathias Neumann, Seven Days perfectly captures the personal costs of the struggle for..

Alain Delon, a universal icon :: A legend of French cinema and a key figure in the global film industry
“With the passing away of Alain Delon, France has lost one of its universal icons”. The French Presidency paid tribute to the star in a statement released on the very day of..

Oscars: Germany Submits Mohammad Rasoulof’s ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’ For International Feature Film Race
Germany has selected Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig as its submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy..

LOCARNO 2024 Awards :: Toxic wins the Golden Leopard at Locarno
The festival has elevated two courageous Lithuanian directors, Saulė Bliuvaitė and Laurynas Bareiša, to the highest podium, along with the equally radical Kurdish-Austrian director Kurdwin Ayub..

LOCARNO 2024 Piazza Grande • Mohammad Rasoulof • Director of The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Iranian director fills us in on the background to his Cannes-awarded film as well as on the current political situation in Iran. 'The regime is a minefield. All it wants at the moment is to..'

LOCARNO 2024 :: Semaine de la Critique :: Review: A Sisters’ Tale
Iranian director Leila Amini films her sister, an aspiring singer, across seven years, in a country where public singing by women is banned. The restrictions on women’s rights in Iran, and the waves of unrest against them..

VENICE 2024 :: FIRST LOOK :: Families Like Ours
“Countries disappear, love remains.” The country which perishes is Denmark in a not-too-distant future. A grandiose and intimate family drama about a nation forced to say goodbye to the homeland..

VENICE 2024 :: Venice selects 21 films to compete for the Golden Lion
Great returns, some confirmations and a few surprises, both in competition and out, in the varied line-up of this year’s Venice Film Festival. Alberto Barbera has promised many more surprises during his press conference..

‘The Things You Kill’
Best Friend Forever Acquires Alireza Khatami’s Thriller
Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights of Alireza Khatami’s “The Things You Kill.” A timely, gripping narrative that elevates..

Universal Language :: A Whimsical Fusion of Tehran and Winnipeg
By converting his drab hometown into an exotic land filled with nostalgia, Matthew Rankin seems to be seeking out the universal language of cinema itself. He quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out..

EDINBURGH 2024 :: “A SHRINE” Selected for 77th Edinburgh IFF
The festival will feature the world premiere of “A SHRINE” directed by Abdolreza Kahani. This film, a collaborative production between Canada, Iran, and France, is set to compete for the highly esteemed Sean Connery Prize..

KARLOVY VARY 2024 Proxima :: Review: Nothing in Its Place
How far are people willing to go for their political beliefs, and how much can the ideology of a group influence the behavior of an individual? Nothing in Its Place holds up a mirror to more than one revolution..

KARLOVY VARY 2024 :: Noaz Deshe :: Director of Xoftex :: Interview
"I wanted to document the progression of the mental state of stateless people in a refugee camp." The director tells us more about his new film, in which he portrays refugees filming satirical sketches and preparing for a zombie..

KARLOVY VARY 2024 Competition :: Review: Xoftex
Xoftex is the name of a Greek refugee camp for Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers. To pass the time, camp inhabitants such as Nasser make satirical short films and prepare to make a zombie film. Noaz Deshe explains how he..

Shanghai IFF 2023 :: A Review of 'Cause of Death: Unknown'
The first film by Ali Zarnegar receives an overall acceptable score. The writer and director's extensive experience, including his frequent involvement in short cinema, writing.., has had a positive impact on the film's quality..

Bahar Lellahi :: 40-year-old Iranian Female filmmaker Murdered in Prison
Bahar Lellahi, an Iranian director and screenwriter from the Northern city of Amol and a resident of Tehran, was killed at the Islamic Republic's detention center and was secretly buried in a cemetery near the city of Karaj..

Dead of Night :: A standout feature by Farhad Vilkiji
“Dead of Night”, a standout feature by Farhad Vilkiji, marking his directorial debut, delves into the struggles of an Iranian intellectual navigating political and personal challenges, promising a poignant exploration of human resilience..

BERLINALE 2024 Encounters :: Interview :: Matías Piñeiro
Matías Piñeiro’s experimental, hour-long film 'You Burn Me', an interesting work based on texts by Cesare Pavese and Sappho about the relationship between two women, was included in this year’s Berlinale Encounters program..

Super Size Me :: A terrific cheeky stunt :: small wonder Morgan Spurlock never matched it
'Super Size Me' director Morgan Spurlock dies aged 53. 'Super Size Me' was his masterpiece – a documentary which really did have an effect and challenged the way we think about food..

Cannes 2024 review :: 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' - A powerful rebellion in the name of art & freedom
Mohammad Rasoulof examines Iran's contemporary tensions through the internalization of turmoil by a family of four. It's a suspenseful and bold call to arms for those..

Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ Wins Palme d’Or at 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Sean Baker’s Anora has won the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday night (May 25). It marks Baker’s second time in Competition, following 2021’s Red Rocket..

Cannes 2024 :: ‘Grand Tour’ :: Review :: In Search of Lost Time
Closer in spirit to an essay film like "Sans Soleil" than to a conventional love story, this lushly abstract travelogue is as gorgeous as it is impenetrable. Miguel Gomes’ Beguiling Colonial Romance Travels from Saigon to Shanghai in..

Cannes 2024 :: ‘All We Imagine as Light’ :: A Sensual Triumph
India’s First Cannes Competition Title in 30 Years Is a Sensual Triumph. Payal Kapadia captures the way two women in Mumbai move through the world with bracing intimacy. It is both dreamlike and like waking up from a dream..

Cannes 2024 :: Mohammad Rasoulof Speaking to IndieWire
Rasoulof Made It to Cannes for ‘Seed of the Sacred Fig,’ but His Perilous Journey Out of Iran Isn’t Over. "I consider making works of art as my right, and there’s no reason why I wouldn’t fight for this right."..

Cannes 2024 :: Donald Trump Origin Tale ‘The Apprentice’ Gets 11-Minute Ovation At Its Cannes World Premiere
The Trumps were on the red carpet this evening at the Cannes Film Festival — sort of — as Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice world premiered in competition. There was lots of hugs..

Cannes Film Festival 2024 ::
Francis Ford Coppola Finally Talks Megalopolis
The Oscar-winning legend has been the subject of deafening rumors about his self-financed new epic. For the first time in public, he finally got to tell his story...

UPDATE :: I exist to narrate :: Mohammad Rasoulof writes about his forced departure from Iran
By publishing a post on his personal Instagram page, he announced his forced departure from Iran. His writing, which you can read here, is a testament to the many artists who were driven..

The Phoenix (Simorgh) is finally online!
The Phoenix (Simorgh) is a short film Written & Directed by Nora Niasari. It follows Mr Farid, an exiled Iranian actor, who teaches drama to reluctant asylum seeker teenagers inside an Australian Detention Centre..

Films Boutique boards Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes Competition title
Berlin-based Films Boutique has secured world sales rights to Mohammad Rasoulof’s 'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' ahead of its premiere in Competition at Cannes, and has closed a distribution deal in France..

Nika's Last Breath :: BBC World Service Documentaries
Secret document says Iran security forces molested and killed teen protester. An Iranian teenager was sexually assaulted and killed by three men working for Iran's security forces, a leaked document understood to have been..

Cannes Film Festival 2024 :: Michel Hazanavicius & Mohammad Rasoulof Movies in Competition Lineup
Cannes Film Festival has added some international titles to Competition Lineup: Hazanavicius‘ 'The Most Precious of Cargoes' and Rasoulof‘s 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig'..

'Biological Terror?!' :: Speculations about Alidoosti's unknown disease
According to some sources, Taraneh told her colleagues that she passed out during her interrogation by IRGC intelligence agents and then, realized that she was injected with an unknown ampoule, after which she felt dizzy..

Taraneh Alidoosti's mother: Pray for her! Her disease is severe!
The celebrated Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti's mother has announced that her daughter is suffering from an illness of "unknown origin". Earlier, there were reports that Taraneh Alidoosti was ill and hospitalized..

‘The Apprentice’ :: A dive into the underbelly of the American empire
The drama charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn. A first look at the forthcoming film from Ali Abbasi, set to premiere at Cannes..

STOCKFISH 2024 :: Review: Tove’s Room
A new biopic about Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen and her tortured marriage to the sadistic news editor Victor Andreasen. We’re in Copenhagen in 1969, and the entire action of this tense, neurotic – yet very intriguing – kammerspiel takes place..

American Fiction :: Movie Review
Jeffrey Wright gives a knockout performance in this edgy, Oscar-nominated comedy. Cord Jefferson marries broad humour with affecting familial dysfunction and biting observations on race. This season’s edgiest comedy arrives with richly deserved Oscar nominations for..

CPH:DOX 2024 :: Review: Silent Trees
Zwiefka – whose last film, Vika! has enjoyed a healthy festival run and is still travelling the world – now trains her lens on a completely different topic: the story of a Kurdish refugee girl stranded in the no man’s land between Belarus and Poland...

CPH:DOX 2024 :: Review: Immortals
Immortals is a dystopian film that turns into an ode to fragility, and it shows the contrasting feelings of those who allowed themselves the luxury of hoping that David might kill Goliath. Maja Tschumi’s film is built around the hopes and broken dreams, but most of all the..

Exiled Iranian Filmmakers Call Out AMPAS Over Omission
Exiled Iranian Filmmakers (IIFMA) has written to AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) to protest the omission of murdered Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui from the In Memoriam segment of the Academy Award..

Oscar 2024 :: How to Watch Every 2024 Oscar-Nominated Movie
It’s time to fire up your Letterboxd, roller-skate out of the real world, and head off to movie land. The 2024 Oscar nominations have been officially announced, giving you a perfect watchlist for catching up on all the films you..

Berlin: Indie Juries Pick :: ‘Sex’, ‘Dying’ and ‘Cake’
Matthias Glasner's German family epic 'Sterben' (Dying), Iranian feature 'My Favourite Cake,' and Dag Johan Haugerud's Norwegian drama 'Sex' picked up multiple awards from the independent juries at the 74th Berlinale..

BERLINALE 2024 Awards :: Mati Diop’s Dahomey bags the Golden Bear
The 74th Berlinale (15-25 February) was brought to a close tonight by the traditional awards ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, which saw the triumph of Mati Diop’s Dahomey, the winner of this year’s Golden Bear..

BERLINALE 2024 :: Competition Review: Architecton
Several thousand years of architectural history are woven together in Kossakovsky's visionary blockbuster, which almost without dialogue - but with images as sharp as flint and a soundtrack as massive as a pillow - is a total cinematic..

BERLINALE 2024 :: Review: Afterwar
An immersive and uncategorisable film, shot over a period of 15 years, was made in close collaboration with its four Kosovar protagonists. A dark chapter in modern European history draws to a close. Haunted by memories of the past and caught in an uncertain state of limbo..

BERLINALE 2024 Competition :: Review: My Favourite Cake
All eyes were on writer-directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha – or, rather, their absence – at the world premiere of their new film, My Favourite Cake, which has just made its debut in the Competition section of..

NAVALNY (2022) :: Navalny’s Plight in a Russian Prison Highlighted
The fact that this documentary movie involves one of the most brazen incidents of state sponsored assassination in memory means this is a unique document of a very singular man. After almost being poisoned to death in 2020..

CPH:DOX 2024 :: The line-up of the 2024 CPH:DOX competitions
CPH:DOX unveils the films nominated across all six award categories. The selection features 66 films in competition, among which 47 are world premieres, 17 international premieres and 2 European premieres..

BERLINALE 2024 :: ‘My Favourite Cake’ Directors Deliver Powerful Message From Iran
‘My Favourite Cake’ Directors Deliver Powerful Message From Iran After Authorities Banned Travel to Berlinale: ‘Like Parents Forbidden From Looking at Their Newborn Child’..

Farshad Hashemi :: Director of 'Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others' :: Interview
“I can’t predict the future, but I know this is just the beginning”. The winner of Göteborg’s Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award plays with fact and fiction in his debut film..

BERLINALE 2024 :: EXCLUSIVE :: Trailer for Berlinale Panorama entry 'My Stolen Planet'
The German-Iranian co-production is a diary-style narrative by Farahnaz Sharifi, from her childhood to the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom uprising..

Farshad Hashemi's film wins The Ingmar Bergman Debut Award at Goteborg Film Festival
The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award goes to Farshad Hashemi's feature debut 'Me, Maryam, The Children And 26 Others'. The prize consists of a stay at The Bergman Estate on..

‘Eternal’ :: Rotterdam Review :: A soulful exploration of love and regret
How can you commit to the future when life on earth seems so finite? It is a question that haunts the central character in writer/director Ulaa Salim’s admirably offbeat romance Eternal..

IFFR 2024 Tiger Competition :: 'Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others'
Farshad Hashemi's feature debut, Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others, which has just world-premiered in IFFR's Tiger Competition, will inevitably inspire associations with Iranian cinema's tradition of intertwining..

Berlinale Calls for Iran to Allow Directors to Attend Festival
The Berlin Film Festival has called on Iran to allow directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha to leave the country to attend the world premiere of their new film My Favorite Cake..

"My Favourite Cake" :: to premiere in the Berlinale Competition
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake to premiere in the Berlinale Competition. Last year, the pair were banned from travelling in relation to their film..

Asghar Farhadi, Iranian filmmaker :: “I saw how powerful women are”
In a new interview with french newspaper Le Monde, Farhadi reveals he won't be making any new films in Iran, for the time being, as an act of resistance against the regime..

IPADOC 2024 :: Review :: Son of the Mullah
Nahid Persson pays tribute to Rouhollah Zam, an exiled Iranian activist and journalist with a tragic fate, with a moving film about the pursuit of regime opponents. “I had a beautiful life before I left Iran”..

‘Gunda’ :: Berlin Review :: Intensely moving and quite genuinely unique
Anyone who never thought they could imagine the feelings of an animal will have their mind changed here. Viktor Kossakovsky’s extraordinary film is every bit as resonant as Bresson’s ’Balthazar’ or Bela Tarr’s ’Turin Horse’..

BERLINALE 2024 :: “Sons” by Gustav Möller :: Selected for main Competition
BERLIN. “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller's prison drama “Sons” will be celebrating the World premiere in the International Competition strand of the Berlinale as the first Danish-language film in eight years..

BERLINALE 2024 Competition :: Encounters
The Berlinale (15-25 February) has announced the full line-ups of its Competition and Encounters sections. Twenty films will vie for the Golden and Silver Bears, including two debut features..

La chimera :: A fairy tale with a social conscience and plenty of humor
Alice Rohrwacher's film is clever, ambitious, and funny throughout, but it also works as an intelligent meditation on our attitudes toward life, love, and death. Get used to her name, because she will be sticking around well after..

Iran: PEN International Calls for investigation over Baktash Abtin’s tragic death
PEN International holds the Iranian authorities fully responsible for the death of the prominent writer, poet, and filmmaker Baktash Abtin and calls for an urgent investigation into..

GOLDEN GLOBES 2024 :: 'Anatomy of a Fall' wins two Golden Globes
Justine Triet’s film shone bright at the ceremony, at which the main winners were Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which also boast European participation..

Tótem :: A dazzling, vibrant child’s-eye view of jubilation and tragedy
Lila Avilés’s latest film is filtered largely through the perspective of a seven-year-old girl who experiences the ups and downs of life in a day with her big and beautiful family.. A co-production between Mexico, Denmark and..

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers Is a Holiday Triumph
Alexander Payne's new film The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti, is the kind of wonderful comedy-drama we used to take for granted. Today it feels like a cinematic miracle. In Payne’s work, one individual’s failings..

Film Orgs call on Iranian authorities to drop charges against two movie directors
Some 30 film organizations, festivals and professionals have signed an open letter calling on Iranian authorities to immediately drop all charges against directors Maryam Moghadam..

Absence :: Ali Mosaffa's mystical thriller
An Iranian man, while investigating into his father's youth in Prague, finds himself in the shoes of a third man who is almost dead and happens to be his half-brother. Absence is an attempt to shed light on a forgotten corner..

‘Cafe’ :: Review :: Screened at 64th Thessaloniki Int. Film Festival 2023
May seem absurdist, but it is at least partially autobiographical. Like his countryman Jafar Panahi, a ban on filmmaking didn’t stop Mihandoust and, in the three years he was waiting for the sentence to be enacted, he..

Stockholm International Film Festival Awards 2023
Best Film: “The Settlers” by Felipe Gálvez Haberle. In a remarkable triumph, Chilean maestro Felipe Gálvez’s brutal western clinched the coveted Best Film award. The film delves into the annals of Chilean colonization and..

36th TIFF :: Tokyo 2023 :: Winners
Family drama Snow Leopard, directed by the late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, has won the Tokyo Grand Prix, the top prize at this year’s Tokyo Film Festival. Tatami by Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv won the Special Jury Prize, also the award for Best Actress for Zar Amir..

Tokyo Film Festival 2023
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), set to run October 23 to November 1, revealed the lineup for its 36th edition, including 20 world premieres across its two competition strands. The festival features 15 titles in its main Competition section led by Japan and China..

GoCritic! Animest 2023 :: Review :: The Siren
As shown through the eyes of a teenage boy, Sepideh Farsi's animated film shows both the horrors and kindness that wartime brings. A striking, bleakly beautiful account of living in a war zone, which captures a traumatic and..

LONDON 2023 :: Review :: Celluloid Underground
Unsuitable films were burned after the Islamic regime took over Iran. But one man stashed away reels and reels of banned and western movies – to thrill a new generation in secret film clubs.. A salute to the underground film lovers..

Golshifteh Farahani On the Shocking News of One of Iran's most prominent film-makers' Murder
"I did my very first movie 'The Pear Tree' with him when I was 14 years old. He was One of the most incredible directors of Iran and a great friend throughout these 26 years"..

Noted Iranian film director and his wife found stabbed to death in their home
Fans of the celebrated Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui have woken to the shocking news of his murder at home by an unknown assailant. He was 83. He was a co-founder of Iran’s film new wave in the early 1970s..

ORCA :: A Protest Against Hate, Intolerance and Dehumanization
Iranian swimmer (Taraneh Alidoosti) fights abuse and oppression with an “Orca” as her Spirit Animal. This drama ... is a genuinely inspiring story, in part because it doesn't adhere to the formula we might expect..

Copenhagen Cinematheque :: 'Leila's Brothers' :: Film of the Month in October
Iranian cinema surprised at last year's Cannes festival – this time with a screwball comedy about finances and love, family relations and generational gaps..

LOCARNO 2023 :: Radu Jude :: Interview :: It's Later Than You Think
Jude once again proves himself to be one of the most original auteurs of our times. Moreover, his lack of fear at being controversial – or simply wrong – allows him to create cinema on an extraordinary scale that does not necessarily..

OSCARS 2024 :: European titles submitted for the Oscars race
European countries reveal their titles submitted for the Best International Feature Film Award at the 2024 Academy Awards. With the 96th Academy Awards ceremony scheduled to take place in Hollywood on 10 March, 2024..

Oscars 2024 :: Denmark Picks ‘The Promised Land’ for Best International Feature Category
Denmark has picked its 2024 Oscar contender, selecting period epic The Promised Land as its official Academy Award entry in the best international feature category..

Oscars 2024 :: Sweden selects Milad Alami’s 'Opponent' as Oscar candidate
“We are very proud and honoured to be the Swedish submission to the Oscars this year! I am personally extra proud of our fantastic actors and our team.” Alami said. The film produced by Annika Rogell for Tangy is also nominated for..

Female Freedom Fighters :: The Politics of Women's Hair
Why the World’s First Feminist Revolution is Happening in Iran. A female revolution is underway in Iran. The mullahs are fighting back with brutal force. A year after it all began, women aren't giving up..

Oscars 2024 :: 'The Night Guardian' :: Iran Oscar entry
Iran has submitted Reza Mirkarimi’s The Night Guardian for Best International Film category at the 96th Academy Awards, in a move that will likely prompt pushback from the country’s dissident film community..

Venice 2023 :: ‘Green Border’ Review: Agnieszka Holland’s Humanitarian heart-in-mouth thriller Masterpiece
A modern-day resistance movie dealing with a new kind of fascism, and very much of a piece with Holland's previous classics 'In Darkness'..

Venice 2023 Winners :: Full List :: Golden Lion Goes To Yorgos Lanthimos For ‘Poor Things’
The 80th Venice Film Festival handed out its awards and Yorgos Lanthimos has clinched the top prize with his latest feature Poor Things, starring Emma Stone; Hamaguchi, Sarsgaard..

Venice 2023 :: ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ Review :: Ryusuke Hamaguchi Delivers A Constantly Surprising Film
Nature cannot be evil, only indifferent. But what about us? Hamaguchi is not interested in taking the easy road to a satisfactory resolution. On the contrary; his story runs up hard against..

Venice 2023 :: ‘The Beast’ Review :: Bertrand Bonello’s Trippy Sci-Fi
Is it sci-fi? Is it a romance? Is it a mystery? Is it a drama? It’s all these things together and none of them at the same time. It is moving and alienating, intellectual and visceral, it is challenging and confusing but it’s undeniably a..

Venice 2023 :: Woody Allen Gets Rapturous Reception :: Talks Love Of European Cinema; Life-Career Luck..
Allen was last in Venice in 2007, with Cassandra’s Dream starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, and prior to that was invited in 1995 to receive a Career Golden Lion, but did..

VENICE 2023 Giornate degli Autori :: Interview: Ayat Najafi :: Director of The Sun Will Rise
The director talks about his Iranian-shot film, which documents the trials and tribulations of a theatre company, while outside, in the streets, youngsters are demonstrating..

Venice 2023 Flash Mob :: In Solidarity with Iranian pro-democracy protests
Jane Campion, Damien Chazelle, Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv joined a flash mob on the Venice Film Festival’s red carpet on Saturday in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran..

Venice 2023 (Orizzonti) :: ‘Tatami’ Review :: Potent Political Sport Thriller
Billed as the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker, “Tatami” goes all in with a lean and tense narrative that is part sport movie, part political thriller — with both parts equally neatly realized..

Variety (EXCLUSIVE) :: Iranian Filmmaker Ali Asgari Banned From Traveling & Making Movies
Ali Asgari, whose latest film “Terrestrial Verses” (co-directed by Alireza Khatami) world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, has been banned by the Iranian authorities from leaving the country and directing movies until further notice..

Venice 2023 :: ‘Priscilla’ Gets 7-Minute-Plus Ovation In Venice
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla got a rousing response at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Monday evening. The pic, a biopic of Priscilla Presley, who was in attendance for the movie based on the memoir she co-authored, scored..

Venice 2023 :: ‘Poor Things’ Review :: Emma Stone In Yorgos Lanthimos’ Glorious Paean To Freedom
Flamboyant, florid, fantastic, and freakish, this might well be one of the most unique movies you’ll ever see. Screening in competition in Venice and certainly one of the most eagerly..

Venice 2023 :: The Promised Land (Bastarden) :: Mads Mikkelsen At His Staunch, Heroic Best
A classic Scandinavian drama about human frailty, The Promised Land is earthy, enjoyable stuff: an expansive, sweeping epic with hope in its heart and dirt under its nails..

Venice 2023 :: ‘El Conde’ Review :: Pablo Larraín’s Latest Is A Bold, Wildly Irreverent Sensational Creation
A madly inspired reinvention of events embedded in the notion that longtime Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet became a vampire who ultimately tires of life and wants out after..

Venice Film Festival 2023 :: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews
The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie 'Comandante', an Italian World War II drama.. Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Here is a compilation of our reviews from the fest..

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The World Premiere of Rhinos Conquered The Middle East
At 61th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The Iranian feature film Rhinos Conquered The Middle East by Vahid Vakilifar (director of Gesher /2010, Taboor /2012, Jonas /2016, K9 /2022) at the world premiere had been selected for 61th Antalya Golden Orange film festival in Turkey between October 10-12, 2024...

On the occasion of the death anniversary of Rufia
Iranian Cinema's Farrokh Lagha
Mah Jahan Solouki (April 3, 1930 - August 15, 2023), with the stage name Rufia, was a famous Iranian actress. She was one of the most beautiful female Iranian actors of her time in the 1950's. Rufia died on August 15, 2023 at the age of 93 in Canberra, Australia...

Bahareh Lelahi :: 40-year-old Iranian Female Filmmaker Allegedly Murdered in Prison
Evidence Links Security Forces to Film Director's Murder. A 40-year-old filmmaker, Bahareh Lelahi, is allegedly murdered in prison. Bahareh, a film director and screenwriter, and one of the detainees of the Woman Life Freedom uprising, disappeared in February 2024 and was buried in Karaj cemetery without her family's knowledge...

Death Without Cause... :: A Review of 'Cause of Death: Unknown'
It had its world premiere at the Shanghai IFF on June 2023
The first film by Ali Zarnegar receives an overall acceptable score. The writer and director's extensive experience, including his frequent involvement in short cinema, writing numerous plays, and hosting photo exhibitions, has had a positive impact on the film's quality...

Iran: PEN International
Call for investigation over Baktash Abtin’s tragic death
PEN International holds the Iranian authorities fully responsible for the death of the prominent writer, poet, and filmmaker Baktash Abtin and calls for an urgent investigation into the medical negligence that led to his death...

Bita Farrahi :: Beloved Iranian Actress Passes Away at 65
An Illustrious Career
Renowned Iranian cinema and television actress, Bita Farrahi (21 March 1958 - 25 November 2023), passed away due to heart and lung complications at Tehran’s Day Hospital. The news of her death was announced today on 25 november...

Absence | Naboodan (2022)
A film by Actor, Writer & Director Ali Mosaffa
From award-winning filmmaker Ali Mosaffa, ABSENCE tells the story of an Iranian man who journeys to Prague on a quest to learn more about his father's past as a communist expatriate in Czechoslovakia, where he finds himself in the shoes of a third man who is almost dead and happens to be his half-brother...

Behrouz: A Legend on Screen
Documentary | Biography
In the history of Iranian cinema, one name stands out as the most popular, the most celebrated and by far the most soughtafter actor of his day: Behrouz Vossoughi. An actor whose popularity cuts across class, cultural and social boundaries of his society. With over 90 films in his past, he has set the standard for acting for generations of Iranian actors to come..

Iranian Cinema Exposed to more Open and Explicit Attacks
The attacks on Iranian cinema has become more open and explicit than ever before. Not a day goes by, or even an hour, without bad news from this cinema making headlines...

Mahaya Petrosian's note to Farimah Farjami
Veteran actress passes away
At the same time as the news of the actress Farimah Farjami's illness and lying in a coma was published, Mahaya Petrosian, who co-starred with her in The Last Act, wrote in an instagram note: Beautiful and brilliant Farimah, your career is full of films and lasting and exceptional roles. I wish you loved "yourself" the way the "camera" and art lovers loved you..

Death of a Filmmaker & The End of an Era in Iranian Cinema
Veteran filmmaker Kiumars Pourahmad (1949-2023) was one of the successful examples of Iranian ‘professional’ cinema, a storyteller who kept standing as far away from the ideological concerns of post-revolution Iran as possible...

The Longest Night
Plenty of Hope, Infinite Hope, Just Not for Us
I fell in love with cinema with this movie.. Yesterday was a bitter day. The unbelievable end of a filmmaker who made me fall in love with cinema. But yesterday, the same filmmaker who used to grab hold of heart of darkness and pull hope - however small - into his frame, fell into despair...

Cannes 2022 :: ‘Leila’s Brothers’ :: Film Review
A sprawling, passionately performed social drama
Iranian writer-director Saeed Roustaee's third feature follows a family struggling to stay afloat in a society marred by corruption and economic strife...

'TiTi' :: Film Review :: Tokyo 2020
Fresh moments amid the conventions
Iranian director Ida Panahandeh directs actress Elnaz Shakerdoost in another taboo-breaking performance as a Roma surrogate mother. The film’s theme is the role selflessness plays in a person’s life — caring about other people and humanity at large versus one's own little orchard...

Venice 2022 :: Horizons :: ‘World War III’
First trailer for Houman Seyedi’s Venice Horizons title
After being cast in a movie, a day laborer has to secretly shelter his lover on the set or else risk losing her and all that movie stardom has promised him. It is one of four Iranian films screening at the festival this year. Seyedi wrote, produced and edited World War III with Arian Vazirdaftari, whose own film 'Without Her' (Bi Roya) is also at Venice...

Without her (Bi Roya) :: Orizzonti Extra :: Venice 2022
The story of someone actually losing her identity may seem surreal at first glance, but coming from a background where you’re blamed for who you are, it’s as realistic as it can get...

Bench Cinema | Cinema Nimkat
Set in an era when videos were against the law
A movie set in an era when videos were against the law in Iran in the eighties. A man with the help of a group of cinema lovers decides to perform feature films in public places. Nasi spends months after release from prison, watching films and memorizes all the lines. He then travels around to perform the films as...

SHAHRZAAD'S TALE
The story of a lost era and a forgotten star
A tale of an incredible female artist caught in three decades of political turmoil in the cultural landscape of contemporary Iran. Before the Iranian Revolution, Shahrzaad was a popular actress who performed in more than 50 movies, a female director who made the first feature film...

Soley :: Light and Sound
A poetic, musical film about exile, mysticism and music
Arsalan Baraheni, a filmmaker living in Canada, portrays Soley's account of his life in exile. Soley (Soleyman Vaseghi) is a well known musician and singer who was forced to leave Iran after the revolution in 1979 when pop music got banned by the regime...

SXSW 2022 :: THE LOCUST
A Room of One's Own
In our times, the life has turned into a talent show, putting spotlight on the winners.. Iranian director Faezeh Azizkhani’s second self-reflexive and cinephilic feature portrays a broke woman amidst personal crises and artistic frustrations...

Atabai :: Movie Review
A genuinely heartfelt, wise and tender emotional journey
The story is about Kazem a middle aged man who lives in a village. He has left the university because of a former love but when two sisters enter his life he falls in love once again...

19 | Nouzdah (2021)
Manizheh Hekmat announced the banning of "19"
According to Saba News Agency the director of "19" announced on her social network that the 80-minute movie was banned and censored.. After getting infected with COVID 19, a 57-year-old painter, single woman, Mitra, goes into a coma. With her last breaths, she begins travelling to different pieces of her memories through her unconscious mind...

Winners of the 2021 ‘Sepanta Awards’
14th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco
We are proud to continue our mission to discover and support the next generation of Iranian filmmakers living and working around the world, while we honor the veteran filmmakers for their distinguished careers. Please join us to...

‘Botox’ :: Film Review
Shanghai International Film Festival 2021
Revolving around two women — one autistic, the other a beautician who gives the film its title — who take matters into their own hands when a dramatic event suddenly removes their brother Emad from the story, Botox is a hard film to second-guess....

Coming event:
14th Annual Iranian Film Festival | San Francisco 2021
Call For Film Submissions Open For the 14th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran. To submit your film, please...

180° Rule :: Khate Farzi
Film Review | TIFF 2020
Inspired by true events and marking the beginning of a trilogy about secrets and lies, 180° Rule is the debut feature from writer-director Farnoosh Samadi. Samadi’s piercing family drama plunges into the pitfalls of tradition, providing a glimpse into the customary Iranian family structure...

'TiTi' :: Film Review | Tokyo 2020
Fresh moments amid the conventions
Iranian director Ida Panahandeh directs actress Elnaz Shakerdoost in another taboo-breaking performance as a Roma surrogate mother. The film’s theme is the role selflessness plays in a person’s life — caring about other people and humanity at large versus one's own little orchard...

"Love Letters from the Middle East"
K. Moradi and P. Azarbayjani‘s devastating Love Letters
A trio of monologues about the plight of women affected by the upheaval in Afghanistan and Iraq. Featuring an Iraqi woman trying to negotiate a complicated immigration system in England, an Afghani burn victim looking for international financial assistance for reconstructive surgery, and the wife of an American solider...

Friendship The Documentary | Refaghat, Yek Mostanad
A documentary regarding the artistic life of Googoosh
"Googoosh is a legendary Iranian singer and actress whose career spans over 60 years across music and film, with her first appearance on stage being when she was just 3 years old. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she played and starred in numerous successful blockbuster films and in 1968, she released her first single...

"African Violet" (2019)
Humanity Blooms in All Its Complex Glory
While some specifics of Iranian culture are on display, African Violet is universal in its approach to everyday people and their daily lives. The story begins simply enough, with a woman, Shokoo, discharging an older man from an assisted living facility...

Suddenly A Tree :: Movie Review
Personal narratives run deep at Persian Film Festival
Suddenly A Tree, written and directed by Safi Yazdanian for big screen, is a completely different movie with a different style than his first feature What's The Time In Your World. Set during the Iran-Iraq War, Farhad (Payman Maadi) is arrested and imprisoned after trying to emigrate illegally with his partner...

Winners of the 2020 ‘Sepanta Awards'
Iranian Film Festival (IFF) San Francisco
Family drama "Labyrinth" was the top winner at the 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco by receiving awards in four categories, including best film and best director. The winners were announced virtually last Friday. Also due to the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival ran virtually this year....

Dance With Me • Movie Review
A Refreshing and Poetic Film from Iranian Cinema
A movie that stands well on its own feet as an independent film like brilliant movie such as Saeed Roustayi’s Just 6.5 and Houman Seyyedi’s Sheeple. A group of old friends reunites when one of them (Ali Mosaffa, The Last Step) falls gravely ill in this Iranian ensemble dramedy....

TALE OF THE SEA • Film Review
The Iranian filmmaker's most personal and touching film to date
One of Iran's major filmmakers is at the top of his game with this Ingmar Bergman-esque meditation on old age. One man’s madness as a metaphor for the surreal lives of a whole nation...

Coming: 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival
San Francisco: September 19-20, 2020
Call For Entries Open for the 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran...

In Remembrance of Farzaneh Taidi
A Prominent Iranian Actress Dies in Exile at 75
Those of us who recall the pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema would remember her as a daring artist with a theatre background who preferred avant-garde roles such as “The eighth day of the week” for which she won the then prestigious Iranian Sepaas award...

The Oath (Ghasam) (2019)
A woman organizes a busload of relatives to testify against her sister’s presumed murderer in Mohsen Tanabandeh’s drama...

'Bahram Beyzaie' • A Mosaic Of Metaphors
Bahram Beyzaie is one of the great filmmakers of Iran with an impressive body of work. Thanks to Bahman Maghsoudlou, It’s now time for the world to get to know Bahram Beyzaei...

Lovely Trash | Ashghal-haye Doost Dashtani (2019)
Following protests to the presidential election in 2009, an elderly woman has one night to clear her house of any politically troublesome belongings of her family...

'Shahla Riahi' • First Iranian Female filmmaker and actress dies at 92
Actress Shahla Riahi, who presented herself as Iran’s first female director in 1957 by making “Marjan”, died of Alzheimer’s in Tehran on Tuesday. She was 93...

Axing | Darkoob (2018)
Winner of the 2019 ‘Sepanta Awards’
An addict woman has been told that she has lost her child, and her husband has abandoned her for starting a new life, she finds them and gets in the middle of their new happy life!...

Kianoush Ayari's film "Paternal House" was again banned!
Kianoush Ayari's film "The Paternal House" was again banned. The conservative opposition has called it anti-Iranian and anti-religious. Proponents have praised the film, while some others consider the basement where the girl's body is buried as a symbol of secrecy in society...

'Just 6.5' ('Metri Shesh-o Nim') (2019)
One of the top titles presented at the Fajr Film Festival's Iranian Film Market, Just 6.5 (Metri Shesh-o Nim) walks the razor’s edge of spiraling tension as ambiguous good-bad cop Samad (Payman Maadi) slyly maneuvers the kingly young drug lord Nasser (Navid Mohammadzadeh) into his trap...

Tickets on Sale Now:
12th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco
Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran will present a record breaking 50 films at its 12th annual event. The films range from fiction, documentary, animation, short....to music video...

Saedi: Freedom and Other Maladies (2016)
The documentary film focuses on the last four years of Gholam-Hossein Saedi's life in Paris, at the peak of his suffering, painfully aware that he would die in exile. It depicts Saedi's restless passion and heartbroken demise based on letters that he wrote over the years...

Kiarostami foundation
Restores Movies for Worldwide Screenings
TEHRAN – The Abbas Kiarostami Foundation announced on Wednesday that it has completed the restoration of a large lineup of his films for screening worldwide. The lineup includes all the short films he made for the Institute for...

Film Review: ‘We Like You Miss Yaya’
Miss Yaya Is Absolutely Not A Comedy
"We Like You, Ms. Yaya" is Abdolreza Kahani's 11th film. For the second time in a career that has been marked by repeated troubles with censorship, the director has chosen to work outside of Iran, and shot his film in Thailand...

Cold Sweat (Aragh-e Sard) (2018)
Screening in LA
Like many Iranian films of late, this one depicts a society plighted by inertia and helplessness, especially for women treated as less than equal by the law. Even for a star athlete — and one has brought honor to her country — victory is forever out of reach...

Film Review: ‘Sheeple’
An Iranian Crime-Family Drama of Explosive Originality
Navid Mohammadzadeh is powerful as a nattering drug pusher sunk in torment in an Iranian crime-family drama of explosive originality. Well-deserving of exposure to international audiences who, however, will have to adjust their ideas about soft-spoken Iranian drama...

BOMB, A LOVE STORY
At UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema
'Bomb, a Love Story' is about love and war, or better to say, how cruelty of war helps blossoming of a love. 'Bomb, a Love Story' will be screened on May 10, 2019 – 7:30 pm at Billy Wilder Theater as part of UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema...

Call for Entries Open for:
The 12th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco
The 12th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, a showcase for the independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians from around the world, is inviting the filmmakers from all over the world to submit their films for the next edition taking place in September 2019 in San Francisco...

UCLA Film Archive
UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema 2019
UCLA Film Archive continues its long tradition of celebrating the best cinema from Iran and the Iranian diaspora with the latest edition of its annual survey of works by Iranian filmmakers, past and present...

None of Your Business | Va Kas Che (2019)
Kamran Heidari's latest documentary film
A documentary film regarding the life and death of Ebrahim Monsefi, mostly known as Ebram; a popular southern Iranian guitar player, singer and poet. He was born 70 years ago in Bandar-Abbas and had suffered such a sad end that made it almost impossible for one to tell if he had committed suicide or died a natural death...

'Two patches of clouds' (2018)
Mehrshad Karkhani's seventh feature length movie
According to the director, the subject of this movie is not only the lost things, but also the people getting lost, an issue that is rooted in the contemporary history of our country. Mehrshad Karkhani's new film will be screened in Art & Experience cinematic group...

PIG | Khook - Film Review
Mani Haghighi's Brilliant Dark Comedy
This brilliant dark comedy should not come as a surprise, as Mani Haghighi, its writer and director, has been making a steady progress in his filmmaking. From Men at Work to Modest Reception and then A Dragon Arrives, he has shown interest in dark humor that puts the viewers on the edge of their seats...

'Tala (Gold)' (2019)
Parviz Shahbazi's latest feature film
‘Tala (Gold)’ is a star-filled film at the helm of Parviz Shahbazi that is competing for Crystal Simorgh at the 37th Fajr Film Festival. Rambod Javan is hopeful for ‘Tala (Gold)’ to grab various nominations at the festival...

Fajr Film Festival 2019
The 37th edition of the Fajr Film Festival
The 37th edition of the Fajr Film Festival kicked off on January 30, 2019, and will run until February 11 in Tehran.Three films have been screened on the first day of the 37th Fajr Film Festival (FFF) in the Iranian capital Tehran...

House of Paper (2017)
A feature film by Mehdi Sabbaghzadeh
The death of a fellow writer and the return of a lover from abroad inspires a famous journalist to return to work with his daughter as the two investigate the mafia and political corruption - an investigation which will put them both in grave danger...

A Tribute to Hossein Erfani
Voice of Bogart in Dubbed Movies
One of the greatest Iranian voice actors Hossein Erfani died last year due to lung cancer. He was 76. Erfani was born on July 27, 1942 in Tehran. He acted in numerous films and series and for over five decades he dubbed voices of many renowned Iranian and international movie characters ...

Majan (2017)
Rahman Seifi Azad's First Feature Film
‘Majan’, meaning dear mom in some Persian accents, is a social drama about a couple who must deal with the challenge of raising their ill child. Shot in Tehran and north Iran, ‘Majan’ went on screen for the first time at the Iran Cinema Perspective section of the Fajr Film Festival in its 35th edition...

Song of Exile (2016)
A contemplation on longing and the ‘Wound’ of Exile
'Exile' is like standing naked before a rapidly alienating world. With his stories about alienation and longing, the Iranian writer Nasim Khaksar is constantly ripping open the wound called 'exile'. In the film the writer takes the reversed path he took almost 35 years ago...

Rainy Seasons (2010)
Set in the rarely seen world of Iranian middle class youth, this is a gritty urban drama of modern teenage life in Teheran today. Sina, a 16-year-old teenager from Teheran’s middle class, experiences a new life on the verge of his parents’ divorce...

Parviz (2012)
Iranian writer-director Majid Barzegar's second feature
Under alien conditions, the normally mild-mannered Parviz begins to discover the more forceful aspects of his personality. In discovering the violent power he can yield he begins to show his father and the other residents that they cannot cast him out of their lives so easily...

12th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco
Call For Entries Open for the 12th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran. Last year, the festival presented films ranging from fiction, documentary, animation, short, children, music video….to experimental...

Parallel Shadows | Sayehay movazi (2016)
Iranian writer-director Asghar Na'imi's third feature
"Parallel Shadows" is a free adaptation from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "A Gentle Creature" directed by Asghar Na'imi and played by Shahab Hosseini, Abolfazl Pourarab, Samira Hassanpour and Hadis Foladvand. It tells the story of a single and depressed man cut off from his past, who is trying to find out...

In Memory of Ali Moallem & Aref Lorestani
Ali Moallem, film producer, publisher and managing director and editor-in-chief of Donya-ye-Tasvir (Picture World) magazine and Iranian comedian Aref Lorestani, the renowned TV actor died both of cardiac arrest in the same year...

SHEEPLE | The Little Rusty Brains (2018
A True Master Class of Acting!
The story of a gang of drug dealers in the south of Tehran who has sheltered many youngsters and orphans from the streets. Shahin and Shakoor who are brothers are leading the gang but when it is collapsed creates a crisis in their family and their lives...

Vahid Jalilvand talks about
"No Date, No Signature", Iran’s Oscar Entery
“No Date, No Signature”, directed by Vahid Jalilvand is Iranian entry for Best Foreign language Film Award. “No Date, No Signature” has been quite successful in film festival circuits by winning numerous awards...

Another Time | Zamani Digar (2018)
Iranian writer-director Nahid Hassanzadeh's first feature
Directed by Nahid Hassanzadeh, ‘Another Time’ tells the story of Ghadir who is a chemical plant worker going through a hard time. After protesting against being unpaid for over a year, he is arrested during a demonstration and imprisoned without trial...

Godfrey Cheshire's Interview with
Legendary Iranian cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari
When Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation became the first Iranian film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film of 2012, it gave the world a look at the work not only of one of Iran’s most acclaimed writer-directors but also of an Iranian cinematographer whose skills have contributed to dozens of important films of...

A Canary, A Crow (2017)
A woman, a man and a rifle in one house
This is the directortial debut of prolific novelist and screenwriter Asghar Abdollahi. Through her husband’s negligence a woman is blinded in one eye. Angry and ashamed, she refuses to venture outside. There is a chronic...

‘Master actor’ of Iranian cinema dies at the age of 94
Legendary veteran Iranian actor dies at 94
Ezzatollah Entezami, one of the most prominent actors of the Iranian cinema and theater, who was named ‘master actor’ in his memoirs written by Hushang Golmakani, died on Friday at the age of 94...

Tickets on Sale Now:
The 11th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco
Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran, which showcases independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians from around the world, will present 48 films at its 11th annual event...

Amir (2018)
Karlovy Vary IFF 2018 - East of the West - Competition
Amir is a film about contemporary Iran, about a generation whose private lives are determined more by the rules of society than by their own will. Nima Eghlima’s feature debut is a film about a contemporary Iranian generation that is subject to so many rules there’s no room for free will...

Wake Up, Arezoo! | Bidar show, Arezoo!
Just after the Bam earthquake of December 2003, a woman, Reyhaneh, emerges screaming from the rubble of her house, thinking that no-one else in there has survived. Director Kianoush Ayari's story of human tragedy and survival...

The Time I came Back! (GHASHANG & FARANG )(2016)
Bahram and Hamid are living with their mothers, Ghashang and Farang. Bahram is a film critic and Hamid, a dentist who is not well committed to his wife. This is why, his wife has left for France with the excuse of higher education....

Razor’s Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses
An examination of the work and lives of actresses in the Iranian film industry prior to the 1979 revolution, featuring myriad interviews and rare film clips...

Vida Ghahremani
Legendary Iranian Actress leaves our world
Today the legendary Iranian-American actress Vida Ghahremani passed away after battling cancer for many years. She went beyond taboos of her time to have the very first...

Iranian Veteran Actor dies at 88
Nasser Malek-Motiei, Iranian Veteran Actor, who appeared in over 100 movies and TV series, in most of which he played the roles of virile characters, died at Tehran’s Aatieh Hospital on Friday night, he was 88...

Bridge OF Sleep | Pol-e Khaab (2016)
Tehran-born writer-director Oktay Baraheni's first feature
Oktay Baraheni's first feature, the social drama 'Bridge of Sleep', freely adapts Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and transposes it to contemporary Iran...

Call for Entries Open for:
The 11th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco
San Francisco: The 11th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, a showcase for independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians from around the world, is inviting the filmmakers from all over the world to submit their films to the next edition taking place in September 2018..

Bomb, A Love Story (2018)
Payman Moaadi's Second feature film
‘Bomb, a Love Story’ is the story of those people who were not given the opportunity to fall in love, live, work and fulfil their lives as they deemed fit. The story of people caught up in the tyranny of time and place, but whose unfulfilled desires and dreams still haunt us...

Dressage (2018) • Film Review
winner of a special mention in Berlin’s Generation 14plus
An Iranian teenage girl takes part in a robbery but the fun ends there in Pooya Badkoobeh’s moral drama, which won a special mention in Berlin’s Generation 14plus sidebar. This first feature by Pooya Badkoobeh, who has made a career directing TV commercials, plunges deeply into the muddled, exasperating world of teenagers..

Mohamad Ali Keshavarz
Special Honor for His 88th Birthday
Newly established Shahrak Cineplex in Tehran hosted a ceremony on Friday to honor the veteran actor Mohammad-Ali Keshavarz on the occasion of his 88th birthday. One of the most experienced and prominent living actors of Iranian cinema...

Gholam (2017)
Shahab Hosseini delivers a nuanced performance
'Gholam' is the debut feature from award-winning Iranian artist and filmmaker Mitra Tabrizian, in collaboration with Cyrus Massoudi. Shahab Hosseini plays Gholam, a taciturn immigrant who works as a minicab driver by night and mechanic by day...

The Bright Day | Rooz-e Roshan (2013)
One of the Best ever Iranian first feature Films
Farhoudi (Pantea Bahram), is a teacher who wants to prevent the father of a student from being unjustly sentenced for homicide: her mission is to convince the witnesses to testify in favor of the accused. She must prove that...

Italy Italy | Italia Italia (2017)

"Italy Italy" is full of cinematic and literary references. In spite of it's claim of being adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri's novel of the same name, there are also references to Khaled Hosseini's last published work, Dariush Mehrjui's "Hamoun", along with the presence of some figures from Iranian cinema...

The Sale (2014)
Screened at the 21st Vesoul International Film Festival
Forough is a middle aged woman whose husband has temporarily married with another woman. Even though that was kept secret from her, but his action is considered legal in Iran. Now the husband is in prison, due to not being able to pay second wife’s..

Mani Haghighi’s new Film "Pig"
to Compete for Golden Bear Award at Berlinale
Directed and produced by Mani Haghighi, Pig will have its world premiere at the Berlinale. The story centers on Hasan, a filmmaker, who thinks he is the best in the country but has problems with making his new film...

Subdued (2017)
Story of a woman going through a nervous breakdown
Nematollah’s smart direction, the stunning cinematography by Farshad Mohammadi and Hatami’s electric performance have all won raves for a film that has become one of the biggest box office and critical hits of the year in Iran...

Israfil (2017)
Screened at the London Film Festival
Director Ida Panahandeh's follow-up to the brilliant 'Nahid' has screened at the London Film Festival and the Fajr Film Festival where it premiered. When Mahi’s son dies in a car accident, Behrouz who has returned to Iran to sell his properties, attends the funeral. Their old romance catches up while...

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