Azarpandar: The record of international works in Tehran short film festival was broken

According to the news reporter of Fars News Agency, the media meeting of the 40th Tehran International Short Film Festival was held in the morning of Monday, August 30, in the beautiful garden, with the presence of Mehdi Azarpandar, the CEO of the Iranian Youth Cinema Association and the secretary of the event, a group of deputies of the association, festival officials and media people.

At the beginning of this meeting, which started late, Mehdi Azarpandar, the secretary of the 40th Tehran International Short Film Festival, said: This is the first press conference of the 40th edition of the festival. In the past, I will give you a report of what has happened so far. It is an important event that an event has been held for forty years without a break, and I am proud to be its secretary. In this period, we published the call for the international section before the beginning of 1402. The call for the national cinema department was also published in May this year.

He added: The timing of the festival was the same as the 38th and 39th. Since the day when the festival was recognized as an event approved by the Oscar Academy, its timing has remained constant, and one of its international components is the same time stability in holding. The registration of works in the national section started on May 11 this year, and the deadline announced in the call was supposed to end on August 10, which was extended by 10 days for some reasons. Despite the fact that we were not interested in this extension, it was extended for several reasons. He said about the number of works received at the secretariat in the national cinema department: We witnessed 1787 works in the national department. In the international section, we saw an unprecedented record breaking and 7216 of 131 countries reached the secretariat in the international section. This number has increased by about 800 films compared to the 38th period, which recorded the most works before this. This significant increase is an important event.

He pointed out: 1185 fiction works, 267 documentaries, 222 experimental works and 113 animation works, which includes a total of 1787 registered works.

He said about the reason for the extension of the deadline for receiving works in the national section: Last year, events caused the production of short films to decrease in the last few months of the year, and with the beginning of Bahman and Esfand and the stability that was established in the country in terms of culture, the first months of this year witnessed a traffic jam. We were in production and saw a lot of requests from filmmakers to add time to bring their works to the festival. For this reason, the schedule was compressed a bit, and we thought that due to the number of requests and their increase, this time should be extended, and filmmakers were given a 10-day deadline to deliver their films to the festival.

Azarpandar further stated: It is not a secret for you in the international sector that last year we faced external pressures for not holding the festival at the scheduled time. We received notifications from several places, the matter was exaggerated internally, and some even said that the Oscar Academy canceled our award, which was false news. This record breaking shows that it was exaggerated in this sector and it is known as the most international event and for the first time this number of works has reached our secretariat. Even among famous international festivals, this number is an important and significant achievement. The international section of the festival includes international films and we do not accept domestic films. So this number is an important number globally.

He added: In the international section, we have added two awards, “Truth Seekers” and “Silk Road” to the 40th Festival. Because we were looking for this space that in the international section, if there are works that, contrary to today’s hegemony, seek to reflect the truths, a themed award will be given to them. The Silk Road has been added for the reason that we use the neighboring space, this award is a reminder of the exchange space that used to exist between many countries, and today, when we pay special attention to the neighboring countries, here is also a small union of about Have a prize.

Regarding the countries present in this event, the secretary of Tehran Short Film Festival said: Spain, India, France, America and China are the most countries that have sent us works. The important thing that happened this year is that our site published the invitation in 12 languages, which was a step in order to expand the international borders of the festival; For example, maybe in the past years we did not have this number of works from Spain. We tried to comply with international requirements and I think we still have a long way to go because the Tehran International Short Film Festival has a lot of prestige. Today, our country owns capital in the field of festivals.

He added: In the international sector, we tried to expand international platforms. Another important event was that the Oscar-qualified festivals are mostly accepted by receiving money, considering that we have problems in receiving money, this issue did not happen in the past years, but this year we managed to receive the works, films by receiving money and entry. Let’s accept. We hope to be able to go this way better and generate income for the festival from next year.

He said: The closer the festival is to the extent of Iran, the better it is in the field of filmmakers, what themes are good. This year, instead of opening a special line for films by filmmakers from other cities, we are paying special attention to filmmakers from cities among films of the same level. Many of the directors who make films in Tehran are the same children from the cities and other cities, but they came here because of the ease of making films in Tehran, but it is worth accepting films from the cities. This year, we are seeing a slight change in share. Last year, about 30% of the works were for Tehran. This year, we are seeing 26% of the works reaching the secretariat from Tehran, and this process of our investment in cinematographers from other cities, which has started, will change this balance even by a few percent a year. It is a good achievement.

Azar Pandar explained: Tehran filmmakers have sent us 470 works, Isfahan 154 works, Fars 115 works, etc. In the section of female and male filmmakers, we had 295 female filmmakers among the applicants and 1492 male filmmakers, which is equivalent to last year’s statistics. The important point of the 40th edition is that the approach of the Tehran Short Film Festival is “localism in the genre. will be. Last year, we experienced the centrality of the genre in the festival, and according to the feedback we received, it seemed that this space should continue, and of course, diversity was created in the festival, and friends welcomed this space to a great extent. This year, our effort is to emphasize localism in the genre space and we should not imitate western generic works one by one. Of course, we have received good movies so far. Last year, the strong presence of comedy, fantasy, horror, etc. films in the festival was evident. One difference that this year’s festival has is the field of photography, which we pursued more seriously. Last year, we had an exhibition that this year we gave it a competitive atmosphere, and we received many works. Photographs have always been a pillar of the forum, although this topic is sometimes neglected and we try to pay special attention to this area in the festival. Having an independent event in the field of photography in the association is definitely a better thing, but for now, with the existing facilities, we have prepared such a capacity in the 40th edition of the festival, which has reached us more than 800 photos. Our produced films in this period are 307 works, and due to the policy of increasing production in the association, we saw an increase in that sector as well, which we hope will lead to the prosperity of filmmaking in the country.

CEO of Iranian Youth Cinema Association stated: Last year we had specialized meetings and our plan is to have 10 specialized meetings this year, which will have a new form. The specialized meeting section has always been a serious part of the festival and we intend to invite the best to attend this section.

He said about the banning of some topics such as sexual minorities in the festival: what is defined as LGBT will not have a place in our festival, due to the excessive attention that is sometimes given to these works in other festivals and doping towards them. , sometimes you come across so many similar films that each festival has opened a special line for it, this is an unusual process for those who make such works, it’s like creating a resume and we prefer not to be part of this process and still The festival has this red line for itself. Of course, this year, fewer works in this field reached our secretariat. We have the same policy as before regarding infanticide. What is the subject of our red line works are these two subjects.

The next part of the media meeting of the 40th Tehran International Short Film Festival was devoted to questions and answers.

In response to a question about the atmosphere of last year and the existing political bipolarities, the secretary of this event said: I do not have an analysis about the strength and weakness of the bipolarity, we prepared the space for the participants. Remember that last year the protesters were those whose films were accepted. This shows that we do not have such a view in accepting the works. Some had made such a decision under pressure. There are different tastes in the festival. I held a course as the secretary of this festival and we can talk about the themes that were displayed in the festival. Last year there was a protest and political film in the festival, and we welcome that filmmakers have the courage to make films about political issues rather than turning moral taboos into films. We have the same policy as before to welcome different filmmakers with open doors; Someone who knows how to criticize artistically can definitely attend the festival. Some of these critical films are produced by the association itself, and our preference is to have political films. If there is a film that deals with past events in an artistic, polite and dignified manner, it can definitely be present in the festival. Today, it is necessary not to intensify any bipolarity in our society. This story can be judged during the festival.

Azarpandar said about the memorandum of understanding with Khaneh Kitab in response to a question raised by journalists: Last year, Khaneh Kitab allocated an award for adapted films at the end of the year. Of course, we had events related to books in the forum. This year we will unveil between 5 and 10 movie books. In the field of understanding with the book house, what exists is that we called for an adapted script and we will pay the cost of producing a work up to 400 million. This is part of the memorandum of understanding between the association and the festival with the book house, which will provide half of the amount of 400 million to the association and the other half to the book house, also the book house will award a number of its selected films from the perspective of adaptation at the end, and we are from this We are happy

Azarpandar explained: In the national section, I still cannot say exactly how many political films we have because the works are being reviewed, but I can assure you that we will have films with these themes in the 40th festival, although the political themes are not limited to the events of last year. Political films will be represented in this year’s festival. Last year, I asked the selection committee to pay attention to political films because we need to build trust so that filmmakers know that political themes are not taboo. We prefer immoral themes to be taboo rather than political themes.

The CEO of the Iranian Youth Cinema Association said about the international pressure on the Tehran Short Film Festival: I am grateful to the filmmakers who accompanied us in making films of the genre. In the field of international pressures, I must say that whoever wants to have a film in the Tehran festival will be held in the peaceful atmosphere of this festival. Friends who want to do something tomorrow under the influence of their directs, they must do two, two, four with themselves from today, because our position will not change, it is respectable for anyone not to film us for any reason, but the filmmaker should discuss the issue later. If he leaves it and then wants to make decisions, he will be bothered. There are filmmakers who have not achieved success in the field of filmmaking and maybe they are only a teaser maker, but they may want to wrap the sanctioned version for the festival. Young filmmaker comrades should know that this issue is not in their interest. The person who wraps a copy has to pay for it himself, but it cannot be otherwise. There are friends who throw their Simorgh into the water when they arrive in France. There are older ones who, if it is possible to call it big, make a version that they don’t pay for and only create bipolarity. I hope this year’s festival will be held in a peaceful atmosphere, although we had a good experience. It is our pride that we have not sanctioned any filmmaker who had withdrawn the previous year.

He said: One of the features of the festival is that the selected works of regional festivals have directly made their way to the 40th festival, of which there are 10 works. In addition, some works from the Dana festival which will be held later, will directly enter the festival.

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