Cannes Festival to Screen Works by 5 Iranian Filmmakers

According to the festival’s official selection released on Thursday, Iran has participants in five competitive and non-competition sections.

Unlike last year’s edition where Iran had Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’, which eventually won two awards for best script and actor, there is no Iranian production in the main competition of feature films in the upcoming festival. However, Iran will have contenders in three competition sections of Un Certain Regard, Short Films and Cinefondation.

‘Dregs’ written and directed by Mohammd Rasoulof is Iran’s representative in the Un Certain Regard section.

Rasoulof, 45, has already won two prizes at Cannes. His ‘Goodbye’ premiered at the 2011 Festival in Un Certain Regard and won the prize for directing. His ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’ was also screened in the same section at the 2013 Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize.

The short production ‘Lunch Time’ directed by Alireza Ghasemi will compete with works from Finland, France, Poland, China, Sweden and the US among others in the Short Films Competition section.

The nine competitors, eight works of fiction and one animation, will be awarded by the section president of the jury Cristian Mungiu, Romanian filmmaker, at the official award on May 28.

The short film ‘Animal’ directed by Bahman and Bahram Ark, a production of Iranian National School of Cinema is Iran’s representative in the Cinefondation section. It will compete with works from Slovakia, Japan, India, France, Belgium, Argentina, Hungary, Taiwan, the US and the UK.

16 Films From 2,600 Submissions

The Cinefondation Selection has selected 16 films from the 2,600 works submitted this year by film schools around the world; 14 countries from three continents are represented and four of the films are from schools taking part for the first time. The three Cinefondation prizes will be awarded at a ceremony on May 26.

‘24 Frames’ by the late Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) will be shown at the 70th Anniversary Events.

The film is a compilation project based on 24 four-and-a-half minute films that he directed during the last three years of his life. The film consists of 24 tableaux – five are based on paintings; 19 on photographs – which come to life with blue-screen technology.

The Iranian-born director Anahita Ghazvinizadeh who lives in the US will also attend the event with ‘They’ in the Special Screenings section.

Born in Tehran, Ghazvinizadeh, 28, got her bachelor’s degree in cinema from Tehran University of Art. She also attended Kiarostami’s filmmaking workshops from 2007-2011. When she was 22, she moved to Chicago to continue her studies, and got her master’s degree in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013.

Her short film ‘Needle’ was premiered in the Cannes Film Festival, Cinefondation Selection and won the Premier Prix. Anahita was selected as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema in 2013 by the Filmmaker Magazine.

This year will mark the 70th anniversary of the fest, and at least half the directors whose films are among the 19 in the main competition are renowned figures including Michael Haneke, Todd Haynes, Sofia Coppola, Michel Hazanavicius and Francois Ozon.