Winners of the Third Parvin Etesami Film Festival, named after the renowned Iranian poetess Parvin Etesami, were announced in a ceremony at Tehran’s Andisheh Hall on Friday.
The event was attended by cultural Officials, including Mohammad Reza Jafari-Jelveh, deputy culture and Islamic guidance minister for artistic affairs and Head of Iran’s Youth Cinema Association Nasser Bakideh.
The festival presented the winners five Golden Lilies, five Statuettes of Parvin Etesami, two Silver Lilies and some 20 diplomas of honor, reported ISNA.
Iranian filmmaker, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s ’Gilaneh’ was selected as the most influential film themed ’Women’s Role During Sacred Defense Era’ (1980-1988 Iraqi-imposed war).
On receiving the award, Bani-Etemad paid tribute to the late Rasoul Mollaqa Qolipour, one of the best filmmakers in the war movie genre, and said, “We will cherish his memory for years.“
The panel of jury, which included Darioush Mehrjouei, Tahmineh Milani and Bani-Etemad, presented the Golden Lily Award to six filmmakers.
The film ’The City’s Darkness’, directed by Maryam Ketabforoush-Badri, was chosen as the best feature film, while ’My City, Bokhara’ by Laleh Barzegar, was awarded for the best documentary.
Parivash Nazarieh’s ’Closer than Breath’ and Sara Siadatnejad’s ’My Tree’ jointly took the top place in the experimental cinema section.
The special jury award was presented to Mahnaz Mohammadi for ’Story of Migration’ and Touran Kolivand was awarded for her animation ’Step by Step to Moon’.
Meanwhile, secretary of the festival, Maziar Rezakhani, noted that after the inclusion of Sacred Defense Section in the third round of the event, organizers of the festival have received less financial support.
He further noted that out of 478 works submitted to the festival, 220 films were produced by women filmmakers.

Sirous Shamisa

Researcher and Persian literature professor, Sirous Shamisa, was honored in a ceremony at Tehran’s Avicenna Cultural Complex on January 2.
According to ISNA, Shamisa was presented a plaque of honor in the event which was attended by prominent literary figures including Bahaeddin Khorramshahi, Hossein Payandeh, Saeid Hamidian and Hormoz Rahimian.
Speaking at the ceremony, Khorramshahi said, “Shamisa is an omniscient scholar of Persian literature.“
Noting that the master specializes in Old Persian literature and literary criticism, he referred to one of Shamisa’s outstanding works ’Allusion’, which makes explicit the difference between allusion and reference.
“Leading poets Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani and Parviz Yahhaqi are comparable to Shamisa in terms of their literary works,“ he noted.
Meanwhile, Payandeh, a member of Allameh Tabatabaei University’s scientific board, described Shamisa a unique translator and researcher on comparative literature.
He added that Shamisa is quite proficient in English literature, although he is well-known as a professor of Persian language. “Whenever English figures of speech confound us we would refer to the master,“ he said.
Payandeh, referred to one of Shamisa’s greatest works of translation which is a rendering of an anthology of the modern American poet Edward Estling Cummings.
Hamidian, for his part, highlighted innovation as a dominant personality trait of Shamisa which has influenced also his works.
He said that he has a wide range of publications, namely ’Literary Genres’.

Children press is the same all over the world since they all view life beautifully and give joy to the readership, observed a veteran Iranian translator who is now living in Italy.
According to the Public Relations Department of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), Gholamreza Emami described children as nimble jurors since they express their views about a film or a book explicitly while adults sometimes have reservations.
Emami, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Eighth Children and Young Adults Press Festival, referred to the emotional needs of children and said that unfortunately, in the West most of the needs are met through TV, Internet and play stations while the print media only exert a minimum role.
Drawing an analogy between Iranian and foreign children press, he further said that Iran’s children press is among the most distinguished in the world both in number and scope.
Commenting on the experiences of other countries in the field, the writer of the book ’Bird and Wall’, also said that for example, a magazine called ’Book’ was published in Japan, whose staffers were all young adults while the business of publication was undertaken by the readership.
Turning to the disadvantages of looking at the children from above like a teacher, Emami regretted, “We have written and composed about the children but not for them.“
This is while if a writer or a filmmaker returns to childhood world and views the world from the perspective of children, he/she will be more successful, he concluded.

A ceremony to commemorate the late Iraj Bastami, noted Iranian vocalist who died in Bam earthquake in December 2003, was held in Hejab Hall on the sidelines of the First Music and Audio works Exhibition late Thursday.
According to MNA, the event was attended by Parviz Meshkatian, Morteza Kakhi, Abdolhossein Mokhtabad, Bastami’s relatives and a number of artists.
At the event, Mohammad Ali Bastami, brother of the late vocalist, said, “We are planning to establish Bastami Foundation in his ancestral home and transform it into an educational site.“
He further stated that honoring artist is tantamount to respecting the lofty spirit of the art.
Speaking at the same gathering, Mokhtabad, secretary of the event said that Iraj has gone down in history and Meshkatian has played a crucial role in nurturing such a talent.
The exhibit provided an opportunity for maestros to meet each other and exchange views, he noted.
A music band from Kerman conducted by Houshang Kordestani also performed at the ceremony.
Meshkatian also paid tribute to Bastami and said that a nation without artists will not prosper.
Afterwards, Ali Reza Pour Omid, conductor of the event, introduced the book ’Talking Silence’, which includes articles about the late vocalist to the audience.

The film ’Iranian Cannes’ directed by Seifollah Samadian is being produced for international and domestic events, not necessarily for commercial release, reported IRNA.
Editing of the film, which began one month ago, is almost 50 percent complete.
Samadian had said that the film portrays Iran’s presence at Cannes Festival with a focus on the global success of Iranian cinema industry.
It includes ten episodes, each pertaining to one Iranian director and cineaste, he said, adding that it will not be ready for this year’s Fajr Film Festival but will be submitted to foreign and local festivals as soon as it is ready.
A catalogue on 220 films screened at Cannes Festival will be published along with the book ’Picture of the Year’.
Meanwhile, the film ’Return’ directed by Jafar Panahi will be produced in cooperation with a foreign company.
The script for the film was chosen from among a large number of works seeking sponsors on the sidelines of Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands.

First volume of ’Iranian Music Explanatory Bibliography’ compiled by Seyyed Ali Reza Mir Ali Naqi, a researcher on the history of music was published by Sureh Mehr Publishing House.
Edited by Abdolhossein Azarang, a researcher on specialized books, the book introduces Iranian music between 1910 and 1996, reported the Public Relations Office of Sureh Mehr Publishing House.
The work is considered unique from several perspectives: focusing solely on Iranian music, using scientific method in compiling the work, meticulous editing and clarity in describing the books and articles.
Reza Mahdavi, director of Artistic Bureau’s Music Center, said that given the shortage of references in the field, the need for compiling such a collection was strongly felt.
Meanwhile, ’Music Allusions’ compiled by Mohammad Mehdi Mohammadi is also available in bookstores. The publication features selected quotations by a number of musicians, researchers and journalists on the history of Iranian music.
’Music Allusions’ was complied to appreciate and recall statements by elites in the filed, the author said. The 352-page book was published with a cover price of 43,500 rials.

Nikita Mikhalkov

A retrospective of famous Russian filmmaker and actor, Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov, will be held on the sidelines of the upcoming 26th Fajr International Film Festival.
According to MNA, eight films by Mikhalkov will be reviewed at the event. They include ’An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano’, ’Five Evenings’, ’Oblomov’, ’Without Witness’, ’Burnt by the Sun’, ’The Barber of Siberia’, ’12’ and ’At Home Among Strangers’.
Mikhalkov was born in 1945 into a distinguished artistic family. His father, Sergei Mikhalkov, is best known as writer of children’s literature and his older brother is the filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky, primarily known for his Hollywood action movies, such as ’Runaway Train’.
Mikhalkov studied acting at the children’s studio of the Moscow Art Theater and later appeared in his brother’s film ’Home of the Gentry’ (1969).
While pursuing his acting career, he went to VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under filmmaker Mikhail Romm. He directed his first short film in 1968, ’I’m Coming Home’, and another for his graduation, ’A Quiet Day at the End of the War’ in 1970.
The 26th Fajr International Film Festival will run from February 1 to 11.