Less than a week after the end of the 36th Fajr Film Festival (concluded February 11), which awarded the best productions from local cinema, the poster of the 36th Fajr International Film Festival, slated for April 19-27 in Tehran, has been published.
Celebrated Iranian filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi will be the secretary of the event for the third consecutive year. FIFF is organized independently from the national Fajr Film Festival for past four years.
According to the public relations office of the annual festival, the poster for the upcoming edition has been designed by graphic designer Ali Khorshidpour. It carries an interesting phrase: “120 Years With Iranian Cinema” which refers to this year’s event coinciding with the 120th anniversary of cinema entering Iran. The poster has made use of an old photo depicting two kids (a boy and a girl) from over a century ago.
Cinema was barely five years old when it came to Iran at the beginning of the 20th century. The first Persian filmmaker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the official photographer at the court of Muzaffar al-Din Shah, the king of Iran from 1896-1907.
After a visit to Paris in July 1900, Akkas Bashi bought a camera and filmed the ruler’s visit to Europe upon his order. He is said to have filmed the shah’s private and religious ceremonies, but no copies of such films exist.
A few years after Akkas Bashi started photography, Khan Baba Motazedi, another pioneer in Iranian motion picture photography emerged. He shot many newsreel footage during the reign of Qajar rulers.
The first public screening took place in Tehran in 1904, presented by Mirza Ebrahim Khan Sahaf Bashi. He arranged the screening in the back of his antique shop. In 1905, Sahaf Bashi opened the first movie theater in Cheragh Gaz Avenue in Tehran. Until the early 1930s, there were little more than 15 theaters in Tehran and 11 in other provinces.
FIFF is an event that celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of cineastes and pays tribute to local and international films. In the past two years, under the management of Mirkarimi, different sections of the festival were held at Charsou Cineplex, downtown Tehran. The venue for the upcoming edition has not yet been announced.
