The 13th edition of the Image of the Year and Tassvir Film Festival was inaugurated at the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran on Feb. 19.
The annual event, featuring two sections of image and film, started with an exhibition of images in the competition categories of photography, graphics and caricature (in two sections: free and under-25 years of age).
The entire exhibition space (seven galleries) at the IAF is dedicated to the event and is host to over 600 works, including photos, cartoons and posters, by young and veteran artists.
Displayed photos are categorized in news, sports social documentary, art and artists and ‘Another Look’ sections, said a press release by the festival secretariat.
Although the exhibition did not have a formal opening with the usual formalities and cliché speeches, it was warmly welcomed by the public on the first day as the people rushed to the galleries from early hours to see the best works of the year.
According to festival secretary Seifollah Samadian, the secretariat received nearly 40,000 frames of photos but only 500 were selected to be shown in the expo.
A glance at the various sections shows that some topics seemed to have drawn more attention of the photographers. In the News section, P5+1 meetings and the street celebrations of people after Iran reached the nuclear accord with the six world powers in July 2015 are highlighted in most of the photos.
In the sports section, photos related to the young captain of Tehran’s Persepolis football club and his untimely death in October can be seen.
Rambod Javan and his popular entertainment program ‘Khandevaneh’ are highlights in the art and artists section.
Four More Sections
From Sunday, (Feb. 21), four more sections of the exhibition, Persian cats, cell phone photos, ‘Our Iran’ and multimedia, will open to the public.
The film section which opened on Saturday will show 146 films in the free section and 55 in the under-25 section. Short, experimental, documentary and animated films are participating in the competition.
On the sidelines of the competition section, the winning works in different local film festivals in the past year will be screened to the public, free of charge.
Supported by Iran Cinema Organization, the event will show the winners of the art and experience section of the Fajr Film Festival (FFF), Cinema Verite, Tehran International Short Film Festival and House of Cinema Celebration.
“In fact, during 20 days we will review the best of Iran cinema in the past year,” Samadian said.
The opening film will be ‘Life + 1 Day’, directed by Saeed Roustaei, which won nine Crystal Simorgh awards at the 34th FFF.
Roustaei, 26, who surprised everyone less than 10 days ago as his first feature film won the major prizes at Fajr competition, had previously proved his talent at Tassvir Film Festival as he was the winner of the ‘under-25’ section in the past three editions.
Organized by Tassvir magazine, the festival is considered the major image-related event in the country.
The festival winners will be awarded on March 4 and the exhibits and film screenings will run through March 10 at the IAF located at south side of Honar Garden, North Mousavi St., Taleghani Ave.
