Winners of the 26th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) were announced at the closing ceremony of the event held at Interior Ministry’s auditorium on Monday.
The music group ’Dang Sho’ performed live at the event in which no speeches were made.
A retrospective of noted Iranian cinematographer, Alireza Zarrindast, was included on the agenda of the ceremony, ISNA said.
Hamed Khosravi, who won The Best Short Documentary Award, presented the festival’s top prize ’Crystal Simorgh (phoenix)’ to war veterans who had acted in his film ’The Sad Song of Mountain.
The special prize of Iranian cinema to national view went to ’The Child of Soil’ directed by Mohammad Ali Ahangar while ’Simply’ was selected as the best film of the event.
Majid Majidi was also awarded as the best director for the film ’Song of Sparrows’.
The script for ’Simply’ written by Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi and Shadmehr Rastin was chosen as the best script.
Hengameh Qaziani and Amin Hiaei won the best lead actress and actor awards respectively for their roles in ’Simply’ and ’Night’.
Crystal Simorgh for Lifetime Technical and Artistic Achievements went to Ali Reza Zarrindoust.
Hossein Jafarian was named the top cinematographer while Hassan Hassandoust was honored as the best film editor.
The best support actor and actress awards went to Mohsen Tanabandeh and Mahtab Nassirpour respectively while Jila Mehrjoei and Sholeh Navvab-Tehrani were honored as the top stage and costume designers.
’Sad Song of Mountain’ by Hamed Khosravi was chosen as the best short documentary while ’Boomerang’ was announced as the top short film at the ceremony.

The Seventh Contemporary Painting Biennial opened on February 12 at Saba Cultural-Artistic Institute affiliated to Iran’s Academy of Arts.
According to ISNA, the biennial is being held in several sections, including ’Our Home, Iran’ and ’The Idea of Light and Darkness in Iranian Culture’.
The jury for the biennial’s competition section includes Abolqasem Saeedi, Iran Darroudi, Mohammad Ali Taraqqi-Jah and Hamid Qadirian as well as two foreign artists from France and Morocco.
A section of the seventh biennial has been devoted to the late Iranian artists, namely Iraj Karim Khan Zand, Alireza Espahbod, Hassan Chalipa as well as Jazeh Tabatabai who died on Saturday.
Tabatabai’s funeral ceremony was held concurrent with the biennial’s inauguration ceremony.
The avant-garde painter and sculptor founded Modern Art Gallery in Iran in 1957.

Iran’s Cultural-Artistic Exhibition is underway in the South African capital of Pretoria.
The exhibition, which opened in the city’s central library, has on display 300 titles of Islamic, cultural, historical and artistic books as well as an array of Iranian handicrafts, said MNA.
A section is also devoted to posters of Iran’s landscape, historical monuments as well as the events pertaining to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
This is the first exhibition of its kind held in the library in cooperation with Iranian Cultural Center in Pretoria.
The exhibition will run through February 19.

A commemoration ceremony for Badi’ozzaman Forouzanfar, noted Iranian literary figure will be held by the Association of Cultural Works and Luminaries on February 19, MNA reported.
Forouzanfar (1899-1970) was among the well-known professors of Persian language and literature and renowned expert on Molana Jalaleddin Rumi and his works. He was a distinguished professor at Tehran University for 30 years.
Some of his notable students include Seyyed Jafar Shahidi, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub, Mohammad Reza Shafiei-Kadkani, Zabihollah Safa, Simin Daneshvar, Jalili Tajlil and Mohammad Ali Eslami-Nadoushan.
He was a student of Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, author of the most comprehensive dictionary of Persian language.
Forouzanfar is also considered founder of the movement to conduct research on Persian classical works and editing them. Critical edition of Divan-e Shams is among his famous works.
Meanwhile, literary website www.naneveshteh.com plans to organize an award in honor of Hossein Monzavi, who is considered the father of contemporary Iranian lyric (ghazal).
Secretary of the award Maryam Jafari-Azarmani said that the award will be given in two sections of lyrics and She’r-e Nou (a new style in Iranian contemporary poetry).
Those willing to take part in the event should submit a minimum of five or maximum ten poems to the website by May 21.

The First Ice Sculpture Festival which ended on Monday in Zanjan province.

The First Ice Sculpture Festival ended on Monday in Zanjan province.
A total of 54 artists nationwide took part in the event creating sculptures on nature as well as the Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-11) celebrations to mark the 29th anniversary of the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
Speaking to ISNA, Mohammad Reza Mir Mohammadi, deputy head of Zanjan Governor General’s Office in development affairs, expressed satisfaction with the festival and hoped that similar events would be held in the future to attract more visitors to the province.
Zanjan’s rich artistic background as well as suitable weather conditions was the main criteria for holding the ice festival in the province, he concluded.

Jamal Mirsadeqi

Anoted Iranian novelist said that the lack of idealism among young writers has brought about a kind of standstill in the field.
Speaking to MNA, Jamal Mirsadeqi added that a state of egocentricity is seen in the third generation of authors.
Stating that each storywriter’s style of writing should change in keeping with social developments, he further said that the author is not a tree to remain stationary.
“Story reflects incidents of life like a mirror,“ he said noting that since life undergoes changes, a story should focus on such developments.
Each writer, he said, can create a masterpiece during his/her lifetime, noting that examples of such works include ’Blind Owl’, ’His Eyes’ and ’Price Ehtejab’ which are masterpieces of Sadeq Hedayat, Bozorg Alavi and Houshang Golshiri respectively.
Commenting on the absence of historical view among today’s writers, he also said that there are three generations of writers in the country.
Writers such as Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, Bozorg Alavi, Simin Daneshvar, Ebrahim Golestan, Sadeq Hedayat, Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Sadeq Choubak were idealists while the second generation which emerged in 1953 tried to create ideals for the society.
However, the third generation has developed a state of egocentricity.
For this reason, their books are not as appealing to the public as the should be, he said, adding that in the past years, the books were published in 5,000 copies but today the circulation of the publication has decreased considerably.
Since the ancient times, the books are considered valuable only if they give pleasure to the readers and lead him/her out to a new world, Mirsadeqi concluded.

Masked robbers brandishing handguns stole four paintings by 19th Century masters worth $164 million from a Zurich museum in Switzerland’s biggest art theft, police said on Monday.
Oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet were stolen in broad daylight on Sunday from the private Buehrle Collection in the second dramatic art theft in the area within days, reported Reuters.
“This is the biggest robbery in Switzerland in an art museum and one of the biggest art robberies in Europe,“ said Peter Rueegger, head of investigations for the Zurich police.
Three men in dark clothing and masks, one of whom spoke German with a Slavic accent, forced their way into the museum and made off with the paintings in a white car, police said.
A reward of 100,000 Swiss francs was on offer for information leading to their arrest, police added.
Rueegger said the Zurich robbery could be compared to the theft of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s “The Scream“ from the Munch Museum in Oslo nearly four years ago. That work was recovered in 2006.
The robbery in Switzerland’s financial capital follows the theft of two Picasso paintings -- Tete de Cheval, from 1962, and Verre et Pichet, from 1944 -- from a nearby cultural centre last week.
The four paintings stolen were Cezanne’s The Boy in the Red Vest from 1890, Degas’ Viscount Lepic and His Daughters from 1871, Monet’s Poppies Near Vetheuil from 1880 and Van Gogh’s Blossoming Chestnut Branches from 1890, police said.