A guild critique of the composition of the judging of the short film of Fajr Festival

Theater News Base: Yesterday (December 14th), the Public Relations Information Center of the Fajr Film Festival announced the introduction of the members of the selection and judging panel of the short film section of the 40th Fajr Film Festival. In this news, during the verdicts of “Masoud Naghashzadeh”, the secretary of Fajr Film Festival, “Ahmad Reza Motamedi” (director, writer, theorist and university professor), “Danesh Aghbashavi” (writer and director) and “Hamed Jafari” (producer) as The members of the selection and judging panel of the short film section of the 40th Fajr Film Festival were introduced.

But this morning (December 15), the board of directors of the Short Film Association announced its official protest against the composition of the jury in a statement.

The statement addressed to Mohammad Khazaei, head of the Cinema Organization:

“By introducing the members of the selection and judging panel of the short film section of the Fajr Film Festival, the Iranian Short Film Association announces its official protest against the composition of the judging.

We have repeatedly emphasized that policies and decisions related to short films will not have an acceptable result except with the presence and consultation of real stakeholders in this field.

With respect to the right to choose the esteemed secretary of the Fajr Film Festival and with respect to the esteemed members of the announced judges, it is necessary to ask why there is no effective, expert and influential short film in the composition of the introduced judges? Was it not possible to add a member of the short film guild to the announced jury?

The Iranian Short Film Association has more than 360 veteran and active members in the country’s cinema, of which some are feature filmmakers and some are directors of the country’s cultural and cinematic departments. . The Iranian Youth Cinema Association has more than hundreds of experienced members and lecturers who have the ability to judge, and there are many independent short filmmakers who have judged at international festivals. Was it not possible to choose from these people?

The impact of policies and the view of feature cinema behind this choice is clear, and the result of this decision is not in the interest of the country’s short film. The result of this judgment will surely be the preference of long film elements over short, which makes the vitality, innovation and empiricism in this field be ignored. The Iranian Short Film Association emphasizes that neither the policies nor the decision-making method, nor the mechanism for selecting short films at the Fajr Film Festival, nor the selection of judges for the Fajr Film Festival.

Short Film Association Board of Directors »