Removal of the red carpet of the Fajr Film Festival/ The situation of the popular Simorgh is not clear

Charso Press: There are two days left until the start of the 41st Fajr International Film Festival, and while the films of the international section have not yet been announced, Mojtaba Amini explained the details of this event in a press conference held on Monday morning, the 10th of Bahman, at Mellat Cinema Campus.

The meeting started at 11 o’clock with the playing of the anthem of the Islamic Republic and the recitation of verses from the Quran by Morteza Yaraqbafan.

Massoud Najafi, the director of public relations of this festival, mentioned the deceased cinema and media such as Vahid Eslami, Asghar Yousefinejad, Mohsen Jafari Rad, Ashkan Mansouri, Babak Barzoye and Alireza Ghafari who passed away in recent years.

In the first part of this meeting, the poster of the Fajr Film Festival’s international section was unveiled by the managing director of the Video Media Institute and one of the journalists.

After unveiling the poster, Amini announced the start of the cinema festival on 12 Bahman and the start of this event, remembering the people affected by the earthquake, and said: The recent problems and inflammations delayed the production process, but the works that reached the secretariat compared to Last years were remarkable. This year, the audience will be faced with a special graphic from Iranian cinema, however, for many years the works were in a single location and in the city, but this year, a production line has been formed that will satisfy the audience with a variety of genres, and we will have a good package for next year’s release. The cinema family will get tired of these movies after the hardships it faced since the corona era. These films represent a new spirit that has entered the cinema.

He added: Among the received works, we had 30 good films, and finally we reached 24 films, and I hope Mr. Masoud Jafari Jozani’s film will be prepared soon so that it can be added to the competition section from the reservation section.

The secretary of the Fajr Film Festival thanked the international vice department of the festival for 6 months of follow-up and consultation and said: 588 foreign films applied to participate in the festival, and the advisory board selected 26 films from 25 countries, and some of them are being screened for the first time in the region.

According to him; Fajr Film Festival belongs to the cinema family and is a platform for this respected family to gain energy. God willing, dear people are also hosts of the cinema family and we will celebrate the Iranian cinema with kindness.

The country is under cyber attack / we hope not to be ashamed

In his first response to one of the reporters about the possibility of smuggling films and his plan to protect the works of the festival, Amini said: “Preparations have been taken in the field of IT, but finally the country is exposed to a cyber attack.” However, they have kdm movies and they have a specific code and time for the screening, and God willing, nothing will happen and we will not be ashamed.

He said about the artists who do not want to be present at the Fajr Film Festival: The producer is in charge of making a decision for a work, and he decides to attend the festival and screen it. Some are with the producer and some are not. Social or personal issues may be involved, but the margins have no effect on the fairness of the show, and our criterion is the producer’s opinion. In the previous courses, it happened that a group did not show up for question and answer, and we have nothing to do in this matter. We try to establish a smooth platform for the films so that they can be evaluated in the jury later.

The secretary of Fajr Film Festival also stated about the sidelines where it is said that the festival has considered a series of encouragements and punishments: We have an event as a festival to which we invited artists, so we do not have the authority to punish or encourage what you said. We are organizing a festival based on the protocols, so what has been raised during this time is the war of headlines.

Amini explained about the international sector: the media on the other side of the water followed up the recent issues with a greater dose and their media war was aimed at harming the international sector. We tried to welcome the international sector with calm and suitable conditions and more details will be announced in the coming days.

He emphasized: Give us the right that this year the situation is different. It is the policy of my humble servant that this year’s notification was done in this way in order to move things forward in silence.

The implied words of the festival secretary about the removal of the popular Simorgh

In another part, the secretary of Fajr Film Festival talked about the situation of the popular Simorgh of the festival after the margins of the previous year while referring to the filmmakers’ request for more time to prepare their works. Let’s not talk about the quality, but this year we have 6 films with big productions, that’s why we waited and followed the traffic of the studios. However, a number of works from the middle of the festival are added to the screening fleet, so these do not provide the conditions for establishing justice in the popular vote section. Until now, while we are here, we cannot place 24 works in the basket of the popular voting section, but we still have a meeting tonight to decide about the popular Simorgh.

We don’t have a red carpet this year

In another part of the press conference of Fajr Film Festival, it was asked about the way of holding question and answer sessions for films, to which Mojtaba Amini replied: The name of the host of the sessions will be announced later, but the way of holding the sessions is the same as in previous years.

Mojtabi Amini said about the red carpet of the festival: Our policy this year was based on bringing a 40-year-old festival to its 41st period, and holding this event is really difficult and we are even involved with it at the national level, so thank you to all the directors of the previous periods. I will and as a cultural soldier I will try to bring this festival to the coast and leave it to other friends in the future. In this regard, I believe that the festival should be in harmony with Iranian-Islamic style and we should not work under the control of Western countries and culture. Of course, the culture of every country is respected, but our foundation is to walk within the framework of Iranian Islamic culture.

The secretary of Fajr Film Festival in response to whether those who announced that they will not participate in the festival will be judged? He said: The festival belongs to the cinema family, and from these 40 years, sometimes everyone was doing well and sometimes not. We are guests of people of culture, art and media, and these works are created for people, not for a person or movement. We must try to give good energy and revive the economic cycle of the cinema industry. I don’t see any problem and we convey this good situation to the families with empathy.

We have to work together to make everything better

He added: I am a child of cinema and maybe we have intellectual disagreements with some people. We had brainstorming sessions with good friends of the director, actor and producer in these months, and this recent inflammation has no effect on these friendships. Even now, we welcome everyone’s presence. We have to join hands so that everyone will be better and everyone should try as much as possible to give hope and awareness. However, this interaction with the cinema family was and is due to the presence of many years in the cinema.

I introduced Homan Sidi to the cinema with “Africa” ​​/ only making “Gando” is not my history

In another part of the event’s press conference, the secretary of the Fajr Film Festival responded to the criticism of the festival’s reporting method and whether this decision comes from his security approach considering his history of producing the “Gando” series. He said: In the media, the producer of “Gando” has been repeated a lot, and I must say that there is a security police genre in the world, but this series had more noise, while my other works and my resume have been forgotten in the cinema.
He reminded: I introduced Human Sidi to the cinema with the movie “Africa”. I made strategic films such as “Saturday Hunter”. I made international films and holy defense, but all the focus was on this last work of mine.

At the same time, he pointed out: But regarding the way of informing, considering the inflammations that have occurred, everyone else would have acted carefully so as not to harm the owners of the works; – This is not a matter that can be initialed from somewhere. We have to take care of the cinema family. If, for example, we mentioned the names of the films two months ago, there would have been a lot of emotional pressure on our friends, but what we did was in line with safety. Due to inflammations, the cinema body moved slowly, so we and the filmmakers were not in standard conditions this year, so the expectations of the previous years should be lowered.

We do not have a word called insider and non-insider

Amini clarified: All our opposition friends who are now abroad were present in different periods of the festival and no one can say that they were not in any of these 40 periods. Those who are still in these 24 films are from the body of Iranian cinema, and we do not have the words “insiders” and “non-insiders”. We have not brought artists from other Korea and all artists are here. If we go back, we would not have announced the names of 75 applicant films and then 24 films early because we wanted them to continue their work in peace.

In the following, one of the questions raised in this meeting was the disruption in the Fajr festival pre-sale sites, to which Amini replied: We worked on these three systems for months, but the country’s internet and data center conditions are sometimes slow and disruptions occur that the Ministry of Communications Must check and help.

The secretary of Fajr Film Festival answered that when this event is going to become professional after 40 rounds, because the justification of the pressure for not informing is not convincing, he said: I repeat for the umpteenth time that the works were prepared late and the promotional items are also at the disposal of the producer. They have their own special planning. We prepare a platform for advertising so that anyone can use it, but some people don’t want it, and it’s a matter of taste.

In this regard, Masoud Najafi said that films and items have not been provided to the festival at the right time due to public relations planning.

In another part, Mojtaba Amini explained about his pursuits to resolve disputes and the absence of the critics’ association: along with 1512 people who registered for the media section, the names of 147 critics were confirmed in the festival, which shows that they separate themselves from the media body. they do not know. During this time, all businesses and professions live their lives normally, but the wave of demand that enters the field of art, especially cinema, from abroad is also criticized by the media. People of art have the right to return to the normal course of their work and get out from under the pressure of the magnifying glass of immorality and injustice that is happening from the opposing media.

At the end of the meeting, the secretary of Fajr Film Festival emphasized that “foreign media pressures have not had any effect on us and we are moving forward with authority to create a new chapter for Iranian cinema.”

In the end, Amini also thanked the director of the Cinema Organization and the Minister of Guidance and said: “Maybe some jokes were made with him – Mohammad Mahdi Esmaili – but the Minister of Guidance gave more energy to cinema than all the previous ministries.”

Masoud Najafi announced in the final part of the meeting that according to the information of the IT department of the festival, more than 6,500 pieces were sold individually from 10:00 to 12:00, and during this period, 19 journalists from foreign media covered the event.

Read more: Special page of Fajr Film Festival

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