The year 2020 began with the outbreak of coronavirus, closure, and quarantine. Many festivals went online in physical form. Screens were physically shut down due to forced closures and went on virtual platforms, and projects often ran into or shut down with great difficulty.
In this report, we have an overview of what happened in this area.
َApril(Farvardin): Ebrahim Hatami Kia's latest film "Exit" was the first film to be released online.
May(Ordibehesht): The Fajr International Film Festival was postponed to the solar New Year. Film productions were allowed to operate in accordance with health regulations. With the welcome of the online screening plan, this time the car cinema plan took a serious shape, and the films "Exit", "The World Dancing with Me" and "New Moon Hotel" were screened in this way.
June(Khordad): A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Farabi Cinema Foundation and the Art Credit Fund to support the owners of films damaged by Corona in the spring of '99. The first "Selfie 20" short film festival was held online.
July(Tir): The governor of Tehran announces the closure of museums, cinemas, theaters, and similar centers in Tehran for a week to prevent the spread of coronary heart disease.
August(Mordad): The first collection of short films of the Cinema Association was screened through internet screening services under the title "Four Ideas, Four Films". The twentieth Hafez celebration was held online and ended while the movie "Full moon night" by Narges Abyar and the series of "Monster" directed by Mehran Modiri won the most awards.
September(Shahrivar): The Venice Film Festival 2020 ended after 11 days with the introduction of the winners of the official part of the festival. "The Sun" directed by Majid Majidi from Iran was one of the 18 films in the international competition, and Ruhollah Zamani received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at the festival.
"Silent Plain" directed by Ahmad Bahrami from Iran also won the award for the best film in the Horizons category. It also won the International Critics Association prize and parallel sections."Careless Crime" directed by Shahram Mokri was another representative of Iran in the Horizons section. Another important event in September was the request of the Deputy Minister of Legal Affairs, Parliamentary and Provincial Affairs of the Ministry of Guidance, who in a letter on his ministry's official opposition to the MPs' plan to oversee the radio on the home theater and video network, stated that many artists opposed And classes were encountered.
The first part of the 16th International Resistance Film Festival in Tehran started physically.
October(Mehr): The 33rd International Film Festival for Children and Adolescents was held online from October 18 to November 23, and the films "Sun" and "Wolves of the Apple Valley" won the most awards.
November(Aabaan): The first part of the 37th Tehran International Short Film Festival was held from November 7 to 17 with specialized meetings. As the representative of Iran in the International Feature Film Oscar, the film "Sun" competes with the works of other countries.
December(Aazar): The Italian Film Week entitled "A Window to Italian Cinema" was held from December 11 to 15 by the Institute of Art and Experience of Iranian Cinema and the Italian Embassy in Iran.
January(Dey): The 14th International Haghighat International Film Festival was held online and "Coup 53" won the award for the best film in the eyes of the audience.
February(Bahman): The 37th Tehran International Short Film Festival was held in physical form and "Winged White Horse" was recognized as the best film.
The 39th Fajr Film Festival introduced 16 selected works out of 110 submitted works, of which "Ydo" became the best film of the festival. Roya Afshar, Reza Attaran, Galareh Abbasi, and Pouria Rahimi Sam were chosen as actors, and "Ablaq" by Narges Abyar won the statue of the audience. The film "The Ode of the White Cow" by Behtash Sanaei and Maryam Moghadam from Iran was recognized as one of the films in the international competition section of the 71st Berlin Film Festival but eventually left the festival empty-handed.
March(Esfand): The 4th International Kish Wave Film Festival was held on Kish Island from February 20 to March 24.