Secretary of the event is film director, producer and scriptwriter Amir Touderousta, 35, who is a prolific maker of short films. The secretariat has received 431 short films, of which 46 works were selected, Mehr News Agency reported. The venue for screening of the selected works is yet to be announced.

‘Alan’ by Mostafa Gandomkar is among the selected films. It is about one of the Kurdish families who lost their home in ISIS attacks.

‘AniMal’ (in Persian: ‘Heyvan’), winner of the 2nd prize from the 20th Cinéfondation Selection at 2017 Cannes Film Festival, has also reached the lineup for this year’s festival. The 15-minute film is written and directed by brothers Bahram and Bahman Ark. Exposing the pain and indignity of migration, the film shows a man who tries to cross a border in the guise of a ram.

Ali Reza Qasemi’s ‘Lunch Time’ has entered the competition. It is a 16-minute drama about a 16-year-old girl. She comes to a hospital to identify the body of her mother. Considering her young age, the people in charge at the hospital do not let her into the morgue.

The Best Picture at the 34th Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF 2017) is participating. ‘Not Yet’ by Aryan Vazir Daftari received the Grand Prix at the Korean event and is about a middle-aged couple who try to celebrate their expatriate young daughter’s birthday via Skype instant messaging app. The film also received the NETPAC Award which is presented by a jury assigned by the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema.

A 24-minute drama, ‘Birthday Night,’ written and directed by Omid Shams, has entered the competition. It is about two friends who are also partners in their job.

There is ‘A Girl in the Room.’ The 27-minute film, written and directed by Karim Lakzadeh, is about an elderly man working at a guest house with his friends. His daughter will come to visit him after some 25 years.

In his 14-minute film ‘A Nightmare’s Tale’ (in Persian: ‘Kabous Nameh’), Farhad Gholami visualizes the nightmares of an entire generation. Battle and destruction have changed a family’s fate. Trauma and fear are displayed in blurred and dreamlike images. The search for an individual identity ends in limbo, lost between past and future.

‘The Wind Carried Dad’s Striped Pyjama’ is what Mohammad Sadeqi has submitted to the festival’s secretariat. It is about a child with an Iranian mother and a migrant father.

Juries of the festival are renowned directors, namely Maryam Esmikhani, Ebrahim Irajzad, Mehdi Boustani, Saeed Pouresmaili, Roqieh Tavakoli, Hossein Rigi, Kaveh Sajjadi Hosseini, Mohammad Reza Sarmadi, Abouzar Saffarian and Nima Abbaspour.

The panel also includes Omid Abdollahi, Sahand Kabiri, Azad Mohammadi, Keyvan Motamedi, Rouhollah Mowlavi, Hamid Nasseri Moqadam, Saeed Nejati, Mohammad Najjarian, Peyman Naeemi, Marzieh Vafamehr and Dariush Yari.  

ISFA is a nonprofit and nongovernmental association and its members include Iranian short filmmakers, directors, cameramen, scriptwriters, editors, producers and sound recorders.

The association started work since 2003. ISFA is run by a board that is elected by members of the association.

ISFA currently has 264 members and is growing. Due to the majority of young individuals in the field, ISFA is considered one of the most active association guilds.

Source: Financial Tribune