Moaven-Al-Molk Tekieh (mourning place) is among the beautiful historical sites in Kermanshah province.

Bigelow Pioneers Oscars With `Hurt Locker’ Win

Kathryn Bigelow played field commander to bring her raw, relentless Iraq War thriller ‘The Hurt Locker’ to the screen.
After her film triumphed at the Academy Awards with six prizes and made her the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar, she graduated to diplomat with her deft handling of some uncomfortable personal questions from reporters after the show.
Bigelow’s rivals included a man from her past --ex-husband James Cameron, whose science-fiction epic ‘Avatar’ also was nominated for the best picture and director that she won, reported AP.
Joining Bigelow to collect the best-picture Oscar were ‘Hurt Locker’ producers Mark Boal, who also won the prize for original screenplay, and Greg Shapiro.
The film also picked up trophies for sound editing, sound mixing and film editing.
Backstage, Bigelow judiciously handled reporters’ queries about Cameron, who was seated right behind her at the Oscars and joined the standing ovation she received, clapping heartily and saying, “Yes, yes” after she won best director.
Asked what she might say to Cameron about winning over him, Bigelow gave a big laugh and shrugged off the question.
‘The Hurt Locker’ scored a victory for war-on-terror dramas, which until now had found little favor with audiences shell-shocked by nightly news coverage of the action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The film stars Jeremy Renner as the ace leader of a bomb-disposal unit in Iraq, a man whose addiction to the adrenaline rush of war endangers his colleagues (Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty).
While it pulled in $12.6 million domestically, a respectable showing for an independent film without big stars, ‘The Hurt Locker’ is the lowest-grossing best-picture winner in this modern era of detailed box-office bookkeeping.
It took in less than one-fourth the haul of 2005 best-picture winner “Crash,’ itself one of the least commercially successful recipients of the top Oscar.
Along with ‘Avatar’, the biggest modern blockbuster with $720 million domestically, the best-picture competition included the $200 million smashes ‘Up’ and ‘The Blind Side’ and the $100 million hits ‘District 9’ and ‘Inglourious Basterds’.

First-Time Winners
First-time winners took all four acting prizes: Sandra Bullock as best actress for ‘The Blind Side’, Jeff Bridges as best actor for ‘Crazy Heart’, Mo’Nique as supporting actress for ‘Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ by Sapphire’ and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for ‘Inglourious Basterds’.
Bullock’s win came a day after she won worst-actress for her romantic comedy flop ‘All About Steve’ at the Razzies, a spoof of the Oscars that mocks Hollywood’s low-points of the year.
The Razzie win makes Bullock the only actress to receive that dubious prize and an Oscar on the same weekend. Bullock became one of the few Razzie winners ever to collect her trophy in person, showing up at the ceremony Saturday pulling a little red wagon filled with DVDs of ‘All About Steve’ for the audience there.

Multiple Wins
‘Precious’ was among the evening’s double winners, with Geoffrey Fletcher nabbing the urban drama’s second Academy Award for his script adaptation of poet Sapphire’s story.
Along with the end-of-evening best actor trophy for Bridges, ‘Crazy Heart’ won one of the night’s early prizes when Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett were honoured for the film’s theme song, ‘The Weary Kind’.
Also scoring two Oscars was adventure tale ‘Up’, winner of the best animated feature Oscar and best original score. It is the third consecutive Pixar film to win the Academy Award for animated feature.

Lavvafipour to Judge RIFF

Iranian filmmaker Ramtin Lavvafipour has been invited to serve on the jury of the 2010 Roma Independent Film Festival (RIFF).
According to Fars News Agency, the award-winning director will be part of the event’s Best Feature Film jury.
Lavvafipour is best-known for his first feature-length production ‘Calm Down and Count to Seven’, which has been awarded in numerous international festivals.
Made in the style of documentary realism and with dynamic camera work, the 90-minute film is a sensitive reflection of the changes in a small fishing village as it moves from its traditional lifestyle toward consumerism.
The 2010 RIFF will be held from April 8-16 in several categories, including features, documentaries, short films, student films and video animation.
The Roma Independent Film Festival (RIFF) is Rome’s first independent and international film festival and tries to create an active and fruitful venue by holding retrospectives, seminars, workshops, exhibitions and music concerts on the sidelines of the film festival.

Tehran to Exhibit Visual Carpets

Tehran’s Golestan gallery is to exhibit a collection of carpets woven based on a book by Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli.
‘Visual Carpets’ displays 12 wall carpets based on the designs included in a book of the same name by the world-renowned Iranian artist Tanavoli.
All the designs date back to ancient times and the carpets have been woven by 12 craftsmen from Iran’s northern cities, reported Presstv quoting ISNA.
As Tanavoli says in the introduction of his book, visual carpets mostly depict human beings and animals instead of the traditional and common designs used in Persian carpets.
“The visualization movement in creating Persian carpets was one of the most exciting artistic movements in Iranian history,” he wrote.
The exhibition will run from March 12-18.

2 Films for Swedish Event

Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) is to host two Iranian films and one Iranian director as it celebrates its 24th edition in Switzerland.
The 47-minute ‘We Are Half of Iran’s Population’ by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and 93-minute ‘Tehran’ by Nader Takmil-Homayoun are to be screened in the event, ISNA said.
Also Iranian female director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is to give comment on the films hosted by the event.
The festival runs from March 13-20 in Switzerland.
13 feature films from Asia, Lain America and Europe are competing in the competition section.
Also 80 movies, documentaries and short films will be premiered in the festival.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ Enchants North American Box Office

Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ broke through the looking glass to the top of the North American box office this weekend with 116.3 million dollars in takings, estimates showed Sunday.
The live-action, CGI (computer generated imagery), 3D version of Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy tale starring Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska has netted the highest grossing debut for a film which is not a sequel, reported AFP.
The seventh Burton-Depp collaboration ended Martin Scorsese’s two-week reign at the top of the box office with ‘Shutter Island’, which fell to third place with 13.3 million dollars, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
Crime drama ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’, starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle as three burnt-out cops transformed by the same violent assignment debuted in second place with 13.5 million dollars.
The Bruce Willis action comedy ‘Cop Out’ fell from second to fourth in its second weekend, raking in 9.1 million dollars.

Imam Ali (AS):

Tongue is like a beast; if it is let loose, it will devour.