With the 34th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) opening on Wednesday, April 20, international guests of the event are arriving in Iran to attend the 6-day annual event.
According to the public relations office of the festival, Tian Zhuangzhuang, one of the most outstanding Chinese filmmakers, was the first to arrive in Tehran. He will serve as a jury member of the main competition section (Cinema Salvation).
Tian, 64, is a movie director and producer who started his professional artistic career as an amateur photographer and then an assistant cinematographer at the Beijing Film Academy, from which he graduated in 1982.
He gained international prominence in the 1980s with a number of experimental films like, ‘On the Hunting Ground’ (1985) and ‘The Horse Thief’ (1986). However, he later focused on producing films and helping the new generation of Chinese directors. Famous Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese says ‘The Horse Thief’ is his favorite film from the 1990s.
Tian restarted his directorial career after nine years with ‘Springtime in a Small Town’ in 2002. He is a professor and the head of Beijing Film Academy since 2003.
In the upcoming days, representatives of Warsaw, Venice, Busan, Stockholm, Toronto, Valladolid, Golden Apricot, Moscow, Asia Oceania and Asia Pacific festivals along with other international filmmakers will come to attend the FIFF.
Workshops in Talent Campus
Globally acclaimed Iranian filmmakers Asghar Farhadi and Majid Majidi will hold educational workshops in the Talent Campus (Darolfonoun) section of the 34th FIFF.
Almost 100 participants, mostly cinema students and short film filmmakers under 27 years of age, from Iran and nine other countries will attend the section which is organized for the first time this year.
The participants are from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and Azerbaijan.
Besides Farhadi and Majidi, other prominent cinema figures will instruct students in the 6-day workshops including movie directors Mojtaba Raei, Fereidoun Jeirani, Farzad Motamen, Pouran Derakhshandeh, Alireza Davoudnejad, Mohammad Ali Sajadi, Majid Barzegar and Homayoun As’adian, producer Fershte Taerpour, cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari, screenwriter Mehran Kashani, film critic Majid Eslami and film composer Parviz Abnar.
Different sections of the 34th FIFF, including the Talent Campus workshops, will be held at Charsou Cineplex in downtown Tehran. Renowned film director Maziar Miri is the head of the Darolfonoun Section.
The festival concludes on April 25. Well-known filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi is the event secretary.
