The 40th Fajr Film Festival is waiting for the prominent names

Theater News Base: With the announcement of the acceptance of 74 films out of 94 films applying to participate in the festival and the announcement of the start of the selection committee from December 31, the most important cinematic event in the country will leave its opening sequence.

Of course, the festival secretariat has not yet announced the names of the applicant films and works that have been accepted and can be submitted to the selection committee. What is announced is only the number of applicant films and films that have been accepted and can be submitted to the selection committee. According to the festival secretariat, 94 feature films applied to participate in the festival.

This list was reviewed in order to comply with the rules and regulations of the festival and to fulfill the legal issues announced in the call for the 40th festival, and the final list of works including 74 films will be presented to the festival selection committee. According to the call of the 40th festival, the screening of feature films applying to participate in the festival will begin on December 31, and the names of a maximum of 22 films submitted to the Iranian Cinema Competition will be announced by January 26th. In this way, about 30% of the films applying for the festival will have a chance to be screened at Fajr 40; The festival, whose competitive part this year will be the most intense of all these years, and only 22 seats will be given to filmmakers ready to compete in the Fajr Marathon.

If last year the festival was held with corona restrictions, this year everything is supposed to return to the pre-corona routine by following the health instructions; With more spectators and more passionate festivals. This is the promise made by Masoud Naghashzadeh, the secretary of the 40th festival: “Society, we hope that the presence of all spectators and cinema enthusiasts at the Fajr Film Festival will be realized.”

A list that everyone is waiting for
The Fajr Film Festival has always been happy with its iconic letters; Especially in the months leading up to the festival, cinema enthusiasts are most curious about films whose producers are either on the list of top directors of Iranian cinema or the presence of popular actors has made them important. Given that the names of 74 films have not yet been accepted by the Secretariat of the Media Festival, the market for speculation about the possible composition of Fajr 40 is currently hot.

Naturally, part of the speculation is based on important projects of institutions such as Farabi, Hozeh Honari and Ouj; Films that seem to have a better chance of making it to the festival. “Dasht-e Dokhtaran” (Munir Qidi), “Night Watchman” (Reza Mirkarimi), “Khat Nejat” (Vahid Mosaian), “Without a Preliminary Appointment” (Behrouz Shoaib) and “Karo” (Ahmad Moradpour) are among these films. One of the first generation filmmakers, Masoud Kimiaei made the film “Treason”, whose registration at the festival was neither confirmed nor denied. The presence of the latest chemical composition, whose works are always accompanied by the greatest amount of public curiosity, can add to the charms of the 40th Fajr.

However, Kimiaei does not have very happy memories of the festival, and usually his films have been met with disapproval by the organizers and judges of different periods of the festival. One of the young faces of these years, Saeed Roustaei with his third composition, “Leila Brothers” can be an attractive option; The director’s new film “Ever and a Day” with its star combination (Navid Mohammadzadeh, Peyman Maadi, Farhad Aslani, Taraneh Alidosti and Saeed Poursamimi) will be noticed by the audience if it is present at the festival. These films have been mentioned as options to attend the festival: Shabgard (Farzad Motamen), “Night, Interior, Wall” (Vahid Jalilvand), “Zapata” (Danesh Aghbashavi), “House of Glass” (Omid Purkian) and ” Party from the Caribbean “(Behzad Farahani). In the coming days, by announcing the names of the applicant films and determining the composition of the selection committee, a more accurate picture of the 40th Fajr films can be reached.

Treasures of Iranian cinema and nostalgia of past periods
One of the important sections of this year’s festival, whose number of competitive sections has been reduced as much as possible, is the Treasures of Iranian Cinema section. The holding of the 40th Fajr Festival has given the festival directors an excuse to have a nostalgic review of the best of the past years. According to the Fajr Film Festival website, Ahmad Amini, a critic and filmmaker, says about the screening of memorable films from the past Fajr Film Festival: Is. Some young audiences who have not been able to see the films of the 60s, 70s or 80s on the screen, now with the re-screening of these films, have a good opportunity to see the films of the early Islamic Revolution in good quality on the screen, and this is a good idea. .

“To make any festival fruitful, one must have these ideas to increase the festival audience.” One of the conditions for the presence of old films in this section is the existence of a restored and high-quality version of them; A number of films that have been restored in recent years, either under the pretext of being screened at the Fajr International Film Festival or by the National Cinema and for screening at the Cinema Museum. In this way, the presence of films such as “Watchers” (Ebrahim Hatamikia), “Mother” (Ali Hatami) and “Captain of the Sun” (Nasser Taghvaei) in this section can be considered definite from now on.