Isfahan children’s film festival kicks off
TEHRAN –(Iranart)- The 33rd edition of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth opened on Sunday in Tehran and Isfahan, physically screening a number of Iranian movies for limited numbers of people in audiences due to an increase in the number of the COVID-19 cases.
The Farhang Theater Hall in Tehran and the City Center Cineplex in Isfahan hosted a limited number of Iranian cineastes invited by the director of the festival, Alireza Tabesh, to attend the opening ceremony of the event.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers have selected the motto “Every House a Cinema, Each Child a Judge” for the 33rd edition of the event.
The Iranian lineup includes “Beautiful Wish” by Ali Qavitan, “Wolf Clubs of Apple Valley” by Fereidun Najafi, “After Incident” by Purya Heidari, “The Fantasy Island (Tornado 2)” by Javad Hashemi and “Sun Children” by Majid Majidi.
Also included are “Loopetou” by Abbas Askari, “Reverse Path” by Abolfazl Jalili, “Mehran” by Roqieh Tavakkoli, “Coconut” by Davud Atyabi, and “Deposited Parents” and “A Selfie with Rustam” both by Hossein Qenaat.
The jury members of the Iranian national competition section are producer Habib Esmaeili, screenwriter Farhad Tohidi, animator Mehdi Khorramian, writer Fereidun Amuzadeh Khalili, filmmaker Ebrahim Foruzesh, film critic Hamidreza Modaqeq and actress Parivash Nazarieh.
A lineup of 107 films is also scheduled to go on screen on different platforms online, some of which will be presented for visually and hearing impaired audiences.
Additionally, Iraj Tahmasb and Aida Panahandeh from Iran, Pablo Salvador from Sweden, Sahraa Karimi from Afghanistan and Chad Chenouga from France are judging the feature films in the international competition.
The films in the short competition are being judged by Saeid Puresmaeili from Iran, Alexandra Porshneva from Kazakhstan and Pavel Gumennikovs from Latvia.
The international section of the festival will screen a lineup of features and animations.
The animation lineup includes “Ella Bella Bingo” by Atle Blakseth and Frank Mosvold from Norway, “Fritzi, a Revolutionary Tale” by Ralf Kukula and Matthias Bruhn from Germany and “Loopetou” by Abbas Askari from Iran.
The features include “The Other Half” by Lalith Rathnayake from Sri Lanka, “Wolf Clubs of Apple Valley” by Fereidun Najafi and “Sun Children” by Majid Majidi, both from Iran, and a number of other movies.
In addition, the organizers also are reviewing a lineup of six short films from India selected from New Delhi’s Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth in a special non-competitive section named “The Kids of Picture Paathshala”.
The lineup includes “Roshni” by Ananya Iyer, “Rang” by Neva Singla, “Life” by Krishnam Gupta, “The Photograph” by Ayaan Agnihotri, “Batata” and “Sahaara” by Anant Tyagi.
The Farabi Cinema Foundation and Cinema Organization of Iran are organizing the festival in collaboration with the Isfahan Municipality.
source: Tehran Times