3 Iranians in Dhaka Film Festival Jury

Three Iranians are in the international jury of the 15th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) slated for January 12-20 in Bangladesh.

Among the four jurors of Australasian (Australia and Asia) Film Competition Section, two are from Iran, Iranian-Armenian actor director Levon Haftvan and Amir Esfandiari, an official at the Farabi Cinema Foundation (FCF), Honaronline reported.

Haftvan holds directing degrees from University of Tehran and Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts in Moscow. He is fluent in Farsi, English, Russian and Armenian.

Although mostly involved in theater, he has also appeared in several movies. He gained international acclaim for playing in Majid Barzegar’s award-winning movie ‘Parviz’ which has attended 30 plus international film festivals. For his performance in the movie, Haftvan won the Best Actor award in the 2014 Dhaka International Film Festival.

Esfandiari is a graduate of Business Management from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. After his return to Iran, he worked on a number of co-productions in films and later joined Farabi Cinema Foundation (FCF). Since 1997, he heads FCF’s international affairs.

Five Iranian productions will compete with 18 other films in this section for the awards in best film, best director, best actor, best actress, best script and best cinematographer sections.

In the Women Filmmakers Section, famous Iranian actress Mahtab Keramati is on the jury with three other women jurors.

Keramati has so far appeared in over 40 movies, plays and TV series. She is noted for her humanitarian work as well, and is serving as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Iran since 2006.

The competitive section will show a selection of feature, short and documentary films by female filmmakers. Four movies by Iranian women directors will vie for the best director award.

The 15th edition of DIFF will host a total of 187 movies from 60 countries in different sections.

Besides the eight Iranian movies in competition, 18 more films will be screened in the non-competitive section.