Speaking at the ceremony, the director of Iran’s Dramatic Arts Center, Qader Ashena, said that they are happy that they could hold the festival online, adding that the shows were warmly received by the viewers on different platforms.

The award-giving ceremony began with honoring the winners in the photo section. The winners honored in this section were Maryam Qahremanizadeh for her photo collections of the puppet shows “Love Puppet Opera” and “A Small Theater from the End of the World”.

Seyyed Zia Safavian was honored for the photo collection “Hug Me before Slippers Come” and “Song of the Sun and the Moon”. 

Mehdi Ashena was also honored for his photo collection of the puppet shows “Exuvia” and “It Doesn’t Take Me”. 

The winners of the translation section were Majid Kianian for translation of the article “Transforming Body, Emerging Utterance: Technique Acquisition at a Puppet Theater” by Haruka Okui.

Parto Purqarai was honored for the translation of “The Puppet as a Paradigm of the Contemporary Living Body” by Noemie Lorentz, and Amin Mohammadi for “Puppet as a Pedagogical Tool: A Literature Review” by Tarja Krogera and Anne-Maria Nupponen.

In the compilation section, Mohammad Ohadi took first place for the article “The Way of Dancing Soul: A Phenomenological Review on Doll’s Restlessness in Contemporary Man”.

The second award was shared by Negin Kashfi for the article “Fashion shows as Puppet Shows, with a Glance at Viktor & Rolf Fashion Shows” and Mir Mohammadreza Heidari and Salma Mohseni for “A Review of the Historical Course of the Wood Horse Game in Iran and its Mythical Roots as One of the Types of Puppets in Iran”.

The third award was given to Faezeh Shahhosseini for the article “Avatars of Plasticity of Imagination”.

The winners of the playwriting section were Milad Hosseini for writing the play “Haftvad Fortress”, Reza Garshasb for “Matati” and Baqer Sorush for “Dash Akol”.

The veteran artists of Puppet Theater, Iraj Mohammadi and Mohammad-Hassan Abuyi Mehrizi, were also honored with lifetime achievement awards. 

The festival opened with a tribute to puppet show director Golzar Mohammadi, who was the secretary of the 18th edition of the festival.

The 42-year-old puppeteer died in March 2020 after months of suffering from cancer.

A lineup of 57 Iranian puppet shows was selected to be performed during the festival running from February 28 to March 7 available at Tiwall, Namayeshnet, and Hashure, the Iranian platforms providing video on demand (VOD) service for films.

However, “Babysitter Curtain” from Brazil and “Somewhere Else” from Slovenia were also staged online at the festival on the last two days.

Source:Tehran Times