More than 1000 Iranian and foreign movies have been submitted to the secretariat of the 8th edition of Varesh International Film Festival, the festival director has announced.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, director-general of the department of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Mazandaran Province Abbas-Ali Ebrahimi noted that the festival has been taking place in the provincial city of Babol since 1999, MNA reported.
While asserting that an important objective of the festival in the international section was to introduce the common cultural heritage of various Caspian Sea littoral ethnic groups whose film productions deal with common religious, cultural, geographical and historical themes, he added, “identifying new talents in short film production, encouraging filmmakers to produce religious titles, introducing cultural issues, as well as reviving mutual relations among the filmmakers, are the objectives of the event.”
Varesh features short films running 100 seconds to 40 minutes in the three categories of main, international and special section. In this year’s edition, Iraqi Kurdistan will participate with guest filmmakers.
Workshops
A photo and visual art gallery, as well as expert workshops in the field of film and cinema and folklore will take place on the sidelines of the festival.
“Out of 1278 registered film titles, 1098 of them have been submitted to the festival secretariat,” Ebrahimi said, adding “58 of the entries are from Iran and 110 are from abroad. In the international section, 168 Iranian and international film titles will be screened.”
The 8th edition of Varesh International Film Festival will take place on January 19, 2015 in Babol and will run for four days.
