July 14, 2021 Edward Bond (English playwright) I think drama has to push things to extremes so that we can understand what we are doing in our society. 8Arts & Culture License Holder: Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Managing Director: Touraj Shiralilou Melbourne International Film Festival Editor-in-Chief: Kambakhsh Khalaji Editorial Dept. Tel: +98 21 88755761-2 Editorial Dept. Fax: +98 21 88761869 to include programs on Iran Subscription Dept. Tel: +98 21 88748800 ICPI Publisher: +98 21 88548892, 5 Advertising Dept. Tel & Email: +98 21 88500617 - [email protected] Arts & Culture Desk Website: www.irandaily.ir newspaper.irandaily.ir The 69th edition of Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), Email: [email protected] Iran Cultural & Press Institute which is slated to be held from August 5 to 22, will have some pro- Printing House: grams on Iranian cinema. Address: Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #208 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran-Iran It will hold a New Iranian Cinema section and a roundtable to re- Iran Daily has no responsibility whatsoever for the advertisements and promotional material printed in the newspaper. view Iran’s cinema industry, ISNA reported. Buyers embrace Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes contender ‘A Hero’ emento International unveiled a (Golden Scene), South Korea (Jinjin), raft of deals for Iranian director Taiwan (Moviecloud), India (Impact MAsghar Farhadi’s Cannes Palme Films) and Indonesia (PT Falcon). bluntmag.com.au d’Or contender ‘A Hero’. A deal for the UK and Ireland has yet to Amazon Studios, which announced be confirmed. According to ISNA, ‘A Hero’ by Asghar Farhadi; ‘The Sun’ by Ma- its acquisition of US rights in April, has “It’s a very strong story and a number jid Majidi; ‘Ballad of a White Cow’ by Behtash Sanaeeha; ‘Bandar since added Canada, screendaily.com re- of faithful distributors have come back on Band’ by Manijeh Hekmat; ‘Hit the Road’ by Panah Panahi; the docu- ported. board for this film,” said Memento Inter- mentary, ‘Radiography of a Family,’ by Firoozeh Khosravani; ‘The In European deals, the feature has been national head of sales Mathieu Delaunay. Night’ by Kourosh Ahari; and ‘The Wasteland’ by Ahmad Bahrami acquired for the Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Set in contemporary Iran, the drama re- will be screened in the special section of New Iranian Cinema. Benelux (Cinéart), Bulgaria (Bulgaria volves around a man who is in prison be- Also, the film, ‘The Chess Game of the Wind,’ by Mohammadreza Film Vision), Finland (Cinema Mondo), cause he is unable to repay a debt. While Aslani will be screened in the Restored Films Section. Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), on a two-day release, he attempts to con- The Iranian cinema roundtable will be held in the presence of Mel- Greece (Spentzos), Italy (Lucky Red), vince the creditor to change the terms, but bourne program manager Kate Fitzpatrick, Iranian directors Manijeh Poland (Gutek Films), Portugal (Alam- things do not go to plan. Hekmat and Firoozeh Khosravani, in collaboration with the Univer- bique), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Spain (A It marks Farhadi’s fourth time in Com- sity of Melbourne, and will discuss Iranian cinema and the emergence Contracorriente), Switzerland (Filmcoo- petition at Cannes after ‘The Past,’ ‘The screendaily.com of filmmaking in the region. pi) and ex-Yugoslavia (Megacom). Salesman’ and Spanish-language dra- The Melbourne film festival program features 283 films, with 40 In the rest of the world, it has sold to ma ‘Everybody Knows’. Farhadi has yet to clinch the Palme film under the banner of Asghar Farhadi world premieres and 154 Australian premieres. Australia (High-Gloss) and New Zealand ‘The Past’ won the prize of the ecu- d’Or but both ‘The Salesman’ and ‘A Production with long-time collaborator According to theguardian.com, last year both the Melbourne Inter- (Vendetta), China (Road Pictures), Is- menical jury for while Bérénice Bejo Separation’ went on to win the Oscar for Alexandre Mallet-Guy at Memento Pro- national Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival were cancelled rael (Lev Cinema/Shani Films), Turkey clinched best actress. ‘The Sales- best foreign-language film in 2012 and duction. Mallet-Guy’s Memento Distri- due to the pandemic and replaced with virtual editions, which, through (Bir Film), Russia (Provzglyad), Latin man’ won best screenplay. while Shahab 2017 respectively. bution will release the film in France on no fault of their own, had none of the magic of their real-world coun- America (California Filmes), Hong Kong Hosseini won best actor. The director also produced the new December 22. terparts – the vibe, the energy, the thrill of watching things together. With new daily cases of coronavirus currently cracking triple digits in New South Wales, things are looking pretty hairy for Sydney’s Au- gust festival – but Melbourne’s, which opens on 5 August, is looking Iran’s Kalhor to stage fourth online concert OK for now. Second International Online Student Puppet Festival calls for participants with Turkish Erzincan Documentary festivals report 22% drop online concert at Iran’s Glass Mu- Arts & Culture Desk than 15 minutes. seum on May 21, 2020, in which The deadline for submitting the he played three of his musical in- in selected films during pandemic The Second International Online Stu- works is September 22. The first struments solo. dent Puppet Festival published its evaluation will be from October 16 to Then, on August 5, 2020, he There was a 22% decline in films selected by European documentary fes- call for participants in the Persian and 22. The winners will be announced at held a concert in company with tivals during the pandemic, according to research presented in Cannes, English languages. the closing ceremony of the festival, Iranian string quartet Miniature, and films from underrepresented regions and continents, such as Africa, The second edition of the festival which will be held on October 24. which accompanied him during continued to receive little love from selectors. will be held in three sections: Adults, The festival will be held under the the concert tour “Silence City” Marek Hovorka, festival director of Ji.hlava International Documen- Children and Adolescents. The de- supervision of Bahram Behbahani. that commenced in April 2019 tary Film Festival, presented its annual report “East West Index,” which sign and construction of puppets are The first edition of the festival was from Tehran’s Vahdat Hall. How- compared in-person documentary events in 2019, and festivals during the required to be in line with the theme held after the coronavirus outbreak in ever, the tour remained unfinished pandemic in 2020, Variety wrote. of ancient myths and classic fictional Iran and other countries. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey covered 14 festivals, eight in Western Europe and six in characters of Iran and the world, ac- It was held from May 17 to August The concert, which had previ- Eastern Europe. These included CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, IDFA, Ci- cording to IRNA. 16. Mahshid Mousavi was the secre- ously been performed in many cit- néma du Réel, FID Marseille and Ji.hlava. The performances must be in less tary of the festival. ies in Iran and around the world, The report found that 2,701 films were selected by these events in was also performed virtually at 2019, and 2,106 in 2020 – a one in five decline. Eleven festivals saw a Chehel Sotoun Palace and the decline in films selected and three had more films in their programs. The Ettehadieh Edifice, a Qajar-era festivals in Western Europe saw a 25% decrease and those in Eastern Eu- IRNA monument in downtown Tehran. rope saw an 18% decrease. In 2019, the World Music Expo In 2019, the Western European festivals selected 56% of their films Arts & Culture Desk (WOMEX) announced Kalhor as the winner from Western Europe, 10% from Eastern Europe, 11% from North Amer- of the WOMEX Artist Award. ica, 10% from South America, 8% from Asia, and 5% from Africa. In The fourth online concert of Iran’s acclaimed Kamancheh is Kalhor’s voice. As he 2020, the figures were films from Western Europe 58%; Eastern Europe kamancheh (a bowed string instrument) vir- plays, he creates whole languages in which 11%; North America 8%; South America 8%; Asia 9%; and Africa 6%. tuoso Kayhan Kalhor will be held on July 28. to communicate with people from all over In 2019, the Eastern European festivals selected 36% of their films Kalhor will stage the performance with the world, from centuries past and far into from Western Europe; 39% from Eastern Europe; 12% from North Turkish musician and bağlama (a family of the future. Throughout his career, Kalhor has America; 3% from South America; 5% from Asia; and 4% from Africa. plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes worked with the best musicians from across In 2020, the figures were Western European films 38%; Eastern Euro- used in Ottoman classical music) player Erdal Iran and studied the folk music of Kurdes- pean films 39%; North American films 10%; South American films 2%; Erzincan, the Iranian artist announced on his tan and Khorasan (regions in Iran), allow- Asian films 9%; and African films 2%. Instagram page, according to IRNA. ing all of these voices to permeate his own IRNA Earlier, the Iranian musician held his first sound. Spain’s Guggenheim Bilbao asks for €100,000 to restore Jeff Koons’ ‘Puppy’ It’s a crowdfunding campaign seeking to ter 24 years in the open air, parts of the ir- 1992. It was later re-erected in Sydney har- pots filled with grenades which they planned pull on heartstrings and save a puppy in bad rigation system are leaking and need to be bour in 1995.