Programs for the 26th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF), slated for February 1-11, were outlined in a news conference on Sunday.
Speaking at the session, Majid Shah-Hosseini, the festival’s secretary, said that the opening ceremony will be held in the Interior Ministry’s Auditorium in Tehran and the closing ceremony for the international section will take place on February 6, reported ISNA.
He added that the events will be broadcast live via www.fajrlive.ir.
“Fifteen foreign and five Iranian jurors will select the works in the festival’s international section, while the Iranian cinema section is to include 16 jurors,“ he said.
Shah-Hosseini referred to the independent domestic and international sections of the festival, and said that the first five days of the event are to be devoted to foreign films and the remainder to Iranian films.
Commenting on the reasons for holding the sections independently, he said, “This would provide an opportunity for the audience to watch both Iranian and foreign films based on a suitable timetable.“
He added that since Fajr’s international section coincides with the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, the schedule would allow cineastes and experts to attend both events.
Shah-Hosseini, who is also the managing director of Farabi Cinema Foundation, pointed to the festival’s special approach toward national cinema industry and said, “It highlights the aspects of indigenous Iranian culture and customs of different ethnic groups.“
Giving further details, he said that 224 films from 63 countries will be featured at the event and 38 statuettes of ’Crystal Simorgh (phoenix)’ will be presented to the winners.
The 11th film market of Fajr festival will be held at the Artistic Creations Center of Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) with 54 companies in attendance, he concluded.

An exhibition of press caricatures by Navid Sharifi will begin in Iran’s Caricature House on Monday and continue until February 6.
According to Fars news agency, the event will feature a selection of Sharifi’s works printed in the press.
Born in 1979, Sharifi is a caricaturist, animator and children book illustrator who started the profession in 1998 and was associated with Shams Tabrizi, Saheb-qalam and Khoob-andish newspapers. He is currently working as a caricaturist with Hamshahri and Jaam-e Jam dailies as well as Salamat weekly and Positive Life Monthly.
Caricature House is located in #60, off Ketabi Square, western Golnabi St. Hemmat Highway Intersection, Shariati St., Tehran.

Preparations for the photo exhibition of Bahman Jalali

An exhibition of photos by noted Iranian photographer, Bahman Jalali, opened on Friday at Tehran’s Rah-e Abrisham Gallery.
According to ISNA, the exhibition has attracted the interest of photographers involved in different genres of the art. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Jalali, who has put on show the photos from the four corners of his homeland, said he is proud of the 165th anniversary of photography in Iran.
The exhibition is displaying 27 photos from 1969 to the present. The photographer has documented the lives of fishermen in Bushehr province as well as traditional architecture of Shiraz, Isfahan and Kermanshah provinces in his collection.
Jalali’s photographs brings out the evident and hidden history of Iranian people--from the streets and battlefronts of the 1980-1988 Iraqi-imposed war, to the barren desert landscape and small towns as well as the distant ’corners of its photographic memories’.
Jalali is a graduate of political sciences and economy. He has so far held over 50 exhibitions in Iran, France, German, Finland and Hungary. A collection of his photos was recently released in Spain.
Jalali’s published documentaries include ’Days of Blood, Days of Fire’ (a testimony to the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution), a selection of photomontages from the Qajar era named ’Visible Treasure’ as well as ’Khorramshahr: A City That Was Destroyed ’--a documentation of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
The exhibition will run until February 19.

Back cover of the book, Farsi (Persian), The Language of Iran

The book ’Farsi (Persian), The Language of Iran’ compiled by Abbas Yamini Sharif, known as the father of Iranian children literature has been published by Ravesh-e Nou Publishing House.
According to a report by Iran Daily’s Arts Desk, the book, which was illustrated by Parviz Kalantari, is intended for learners of Persian language abroad.
Given that earlier reprints of the book were best sellers, the publisher decided to release the third reprint of the book.
Publication of the book comes at a time of growing interest among Iranian expatriates and non-Iranians in learning Persian.
In a preface to the book, Houman Yamini-Sharif said that writer’s command of Persian and English languages and his passion for Iran and Iranians has helped him produce a book with unparalleled quality.
Third edition of the book was published in 3,000 copies with a cover price 29,000 rials.
Yamini-Sharif was one of the founders of Children Book Council on Iran. During his career, he has published more than 30 of stories, poems and Persian tutorial books.
He received several Iranian and international awards but no award was more valuable to him than a smile on a child’s face while reading one of his poems or stories.

Noted Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias has been nominated for the Best Original Score for ’The Kite Runner’ at the 80th Oscar Academy Awards.
Announcing this, Iranian composer Majid Javadi, who is the director of Casa Persa (Pars House) Cultural Center in Madrid, told IRNA that the award is certain to go to Iglesias for his outstanding presentation.
Javadi plays the traditional Iranian musical instruments ’Daf’, ’Tonbak’ (Persian goblet drum) and the reed instrument in sections of the film. He also recites a poem by the great Iranian poet and mystic Molana Jalaleddin Rumi in the film, which centers on an Afghan refugee.
This is the second Academy Award nomination for Alberto Iglesias. He was also nominated for ’The Constant Gardener’ in 2005.
Iglesias was awarded the Spain’s National Film Award for lifetime achievement in 2007 and has won the Goya Award, the most prestigious artistic award in Spain, for seven times.

Ethan and Joel Coen on the set of No Country for Old Men

Joel and Ethan Coen won the top prize from the Directors Guild of America on Saturday for ’No Country for Old Men,’ giving them the inside track for the same honor at the Academy Awards, assuming the Oscars go on amid the writers strike.
The Coens were only the second two-person team to win the Directors Guild honor, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for 1961’s ’West Side Story,’ reported AP.
“Ethan and I have a bookshelf in our office where we keep various plaques and such that we’ve gotten over the years that we call our ego corner,“ Joel Coen said.
As with Martin Scorsese, who as last year’s winner for ’The Departed’ presented the award to the Coens, the Directors Guild winner almost always goes on to win the same prize at the Oscars.
Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, ’No Country for Old Men’ stars Josh Brolin as a good old Texan who makes off with loot from a drug deal gone bad, Javier Bardem as a ruthless killer on his trail, and Tommy Lee Jones as a sheriff tracking both men.
With the Directors Guild honor, ’No Country’ also may emerge as the favorite to win best picture at the Oscars.

First Farhad Prize named after noted Iranian vocalist Farhad Mehrad will be held in Arikeh Iranian Cultural Complex in May.
Announcing this, secretary of the event, Fereidoun Shahbazian told a press conference on Saturday that identifying talents and encouraging young composers, poets and vocalists to produce new works are among the objectives of the award, which is exclusive for Pop music, reported MNA.
The most important point in organizing the event is the selection and judgment of entries, he said. “We will try our best to do the job in the best possible manner so as to leave no room for ambiguity for the participants,“ he said.
“We intend to organize a befitting festival to award three top works in different fields without violating the rights of artists. We will also present awards in the peripheral sections.“
Focus on the youth is one of the main aspects of the first round of Farhad Award, he said, adding that so far a total of 400 works have been submitted to the festival’s secretariat, of which only 20 works will be selected.
Selected groups will perform at Arikeh Iranian Cultural Complex for five nights, he said.

Representatives of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are participating in the First Seminar on ’Role of Geoparks in Promoting Tourism’ which will open in Qeshm Island on Monday and will continue until Wednesday.
According to a press release sent to Iran Daily, deputy head of Qeshm Free Zone Organization for tourism affairs, Mohammad Ebrahim Larijani said that the event is jointly organized by UNESCO, Qeshm Free Zone Organization, Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Department of Environment and Geology Organization.
Heads of Malaysian Geoparks and UNESCO’s Geoparks Section will visit Qeshm Geopark one and half a year after its registration on UNESCO’s global heritage list, he said, adding that some of the projects will be inaugurated during the event.
Qeshm Geopark, which was registered with UNESCO in 2006, is considered the sole geopark in the Middle East.
It covers one third of the island’s area in which the world’s largest marine forest, known as Hara, and salt cave are located.
Geopark is an area with specific borders encompassing several main geological phenomena.