Closing ceremony of the 26th Fajr International Film Festival will be held in the Interior Ministry Auditorium on Monday.
According to MNA, 20 crystal Simorghs (phoenix) will be awarded to the top participants at the ’Simorgh Aspiration’ and ’Iranian Cinema Competition’ sections.
In the Iranian cinema section, in addition to the golden Simorgh, 15 other Simorghs will be presented to the winners in two groups.
The first group of Simorghs will go to selected participants in the five sections of the best film, best directing, best script, lead actress and lead actor while the top works in the fields of best adapted script, filming, film score, support actress and support actor, sound recording, stage and costume designing, special effects and make-up will receive the second group of 10 Simorghs.
The other four Simorghs will be presented to the best films from the viewers’ perspective, best feature documentary, short documentary and short fiction film.
According to the latest decisions by the Headquarters for Selecting Films, ’A Woman Is Always Involved’ by Kamal Tabrizi, ’Song of Sparrow’ by Majid Majidi, ’Can’an’ by Mani Haqiqi ranked first, second and third respectively until Friday.
The films ’Simply’ by Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi, ’Wind Blows Over the Grassland’ by Khosrow Masoumi, ’Son of Earth’ by Mohammad Ali Ahangar, ’Secret Sense’ by Msotafa Razzaq-Karimi are among the other films popular films at the festival.

Persian and English versions of the latest poem by an American poet Barbara Rox featuring the evil of war and beauty of peace as well as a text about the Iranian passenger aircraft which was shot down over the Persian Gulf were placed in bottles and released in different parts of the Persian Gulf as part of the programs for the final day of the 15th Iranian Environmental Art Festival that opened in Hormoz Island on January 26.
According to ISNA, the phrase ’No War in Persian Gulf’ which was designed on a large scale and is observable on the Google, was also left in water so as to convey the message of friendship of the Iranians on the one hand and indicate the opposition to the distortion of the Persian Gulf’s name.
Various plays inspired by devotions as well as modern works were featured at the event.
Most of the works were created by groups of artists indicating interaction among them.
The young artists collected the bottles from the coastlines.
The 15th Iranian Environmental Art Festival in Persian Gulf themed ’Opposition to War and Militarization of the Region’ was held on Hormuz Island with the participation of artists from the US, Britain and Germany.
Noted Iranian sculptor, Ahmad Nadalian was in charge of selecting the participants at the event.

Second annual art expo focusing on the sales of visual artworks will be organized by Seven Views Group in Niavaran Cultural Complex on February 15.
Seven Views Group is an alliance of galleries comprising of Dei, Golestan, Vali, Elaheh, Mah-e Mehr, Haft Samar and Arya.
According to a press release sent to Iran Daily by Niavaran Artistic Creations Foundation, the event will feature 170 statuettes, paintings and calligraphies by the same number of artists including Seyyed Mohammad Ehsaei, Ali Akbar Sadeqi, Yadollah Kaboli, Vasrollah Efjei, Farshid Mesqali and Sadeq Tabrizi.
All the artists will have the opportunity to put on sale three of their works after the work on display is sold.
The second round of the Seven Views expo has two most important features such as regulating the prices of visual artworks and organizing a high quality artistic exhibition.
Commenting on these, spokeswoman of the group Leili Golestan said that the alliance seeks to set a criterion for regulating prices of artworks and help prevent disorder prevalent in the economy of this branch of art.
Turning to the quality of the second exhibit, she further said, “Unlike the previous years, we are very strict in the selection process and chose only works qualified for display.“
The public and the media showed great interest in the first art expo last year and a significant number of artworks were sold at the event.

Jazeh Tabatabai

Avant-garde painter and sculptor, Jazeh Tabatabai, who had recently gone into coma due to respiratory and heart problems, died in Tehran on Saturday.
Habibollah Sadeqi, director general of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry’s Visual Arts Department, condoled the artist’s death and said, “Tabatabaei was a pioneer in contemporary painting and had made great efforts in promoting this branch of art.“
He also told ISNA that a number of works by the artist will be put on show at an upcoming contemporary painting biennial to be held on February 12 at Saba Institute, affiliated to the Iran’s Academy of Arts.
Sadeqi further said that a commemoration ceremony for the artist will be held in March.
Born in 1931, Tabatabai began writing when he was 12. He has published over 40 volumes including folklore stories, novels, poems and plays.
Tabatabai was only a teenager when he launched his own bilingual publication. Then, he became more interested in dramatic art as well as painting and sculpture.
In 1957, he founded Modern Art Gallery in Iran. He has held several exhibitions across Europe. His works were also featured in Paris, San Paolo and Venice biennales and have received more than 10 international awards.

TEHRAN, Feb. 9--Winners of the 15th Iran International Book of the Year Awards were announced Saturday.
Following is a list of the winning books, authors or translators:

Islamic Studies
* Splendors of the Qur’an, Calligraphy and Illumination by Martin Lings (published by Thesarus Islamicus Foundation)
* Giorgi Lobzhanidze’s translation of the Qur’an into Georgian (Tbilisi Center for Caucasian Studies)
* Rasoul Ismaeel-Zadeh’s translation of the Qur’an into Azeri (Al-Hoda Publications, Baku branch)
* God and Humans in Islamic Thought by Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth (Routledge)
* Annabel Keeler’s translation of Sufi Hermeneutics: The Qur’an Commentary of Rashid al-Din Maybodi (Oxford)
* Islamic Calligraphy by Sheila S.Blair (Edinburgh)
* Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali (AS) by Reza Shah-Kazemi (I.B Tauris Publishers in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies)
* Meister Eckhart: Die Geburt der “Deutshen Mystic“ aus dem Geist der arabischen philosophie by Kurt Flasch (Verlag C.H. Beck)
* The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn Arabi’s Meccan Illuminations by James Winston Morris (Fons Vitae)

Iranian Studies
* Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire by Andrew Newman (I.B. Tauris)
* Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition by Leonard Lewisohn and Christopher Shackle (I.B. Tauris)
* Charles-Henri de Fouchecour’s translation of Hafez de Chiraz, le Divan (Verdier)
* The translation of Kouichi Haneda and Yayoi Kawahara of a selection of Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh
* The Islamic Influences in the Iranian Epic by Abdol Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim Hijab

Masnavi Studies
* The Structure of Rumi’s Masnawi by Seyyed Qahreman Safavi (London Academy of Iranian Studies--LAIS)
* Aleksandar Jusic’s translation of Rumi’s Masnavi into Serbian (The Iranian Cultural Center in Belgrade)
* Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the Masnavi by Aleksander Veselinov (Al-Hoda Publications, Bulgaria branch)
* Alexei Khismatullin’s translation of the Masnavi into Russian (Saint Petersburg University Publications and the Iranian Cultural Center)

Second edition of the novel ’Job’s Night’ written by Davoud Ghaffarzadegan has been published by Sureh Publishing House.
According to a press release by the News Headquarters of the publishing house, the first print of the publication was released under the title of ’Plectrum’.
The novel narrates the story of a blind war disabled who decides to go to front but he has been overwhelmed by fear originated from the death of his mother in the river.
Intended for the adults, the book is among the publications featuring the eight-year imposed war 1980-88.
Ghaffarzadegan has also written several other books including ’Flight of Crane’, ’We Are Three People’, ’Little Pilot’, ’Story of Colors’, ’Doves Are Born in Cage’ and ’Winter on the Way’.
The 139-page ’Job’s Night’ has a cover price 14,000 rials.

An Iranian student claims the first prize in a Spanish painting competition with the theme My Right to Decide.
Peace and Cooperation, a non-governmental organization, presented its first School Award to Shaghayegh Motamedi, an eight-year-old Iranian grade school student.
The international jury selected her painting for its depiction of the contest theme, My Right to Decide. Her art work was entered alongside roughly 3,000 works from 37 countries, reported presstv.ir.
This year’s competition was held in Cairo and its aim was to promote peace and harmonious human coexistence.
Peace and Cooperation is associated with the Spanish Confederation of Foundations, the Spanish Coalition for Development, the alliance composed of NGOs with the Special Status of the United Nations (CONGO), the International Peace Bureau (IPB), the Millennium People’s Assembly, UNITED (against racism), and the Securipax Forum of UNESCO.