Noor Iranian Film Festival

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The Noor Iranian Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Los Angeles, California, founded by cultural producer Siamak Ghahremani and co-founder Anthony Azizi in 2007. The festival's namesake comes from the word Nur, also spelled Noor, meaning to shed light or "noor," on Iranian culture and heritage through Iranian cinema.[1] A non-profit, non-religious, and non-political organization, the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) was created to shed light, or ‘noor,’ on Persian culture, helping to express the beauty of a culture that is commonly misperceived due to its portrayal in the media.[2] Additional to the main annual festival in Los Angeles, a tour of the program has made several return trips to cities such as Daytona Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.[3][4]

The Los Angeles festival has been held at such venues as the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA Campus, Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills and Magnin Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center. It has taken place every year since 2007, with the exception of 2010, where due to Iran's political uprising in 2010, and out of respect for the people in Iran, the festival decided to postpone its 4th festival to 2011. The postponement was also due to a lack of sponsorship and seed money for the festival.[5]

Programming[edit]

The program blocks have included feature films, documentaries, short films and animated films, all of which were selected to shed light on Iranian culture and heritage. Their submission guidelines for filmmakers state: "NIFF accepts films from Iranian filmmakers, films made about Iran or Iranians, and/or films that include Iranians as part of the cast or crew."[6]

Judges[edit]

1st Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

2nd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

3rd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

4th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

5th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

6th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

7th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges

8th Annual Noor Film Festival judges

Awards[edit]

Additional to judged awards for films screened at the festival, the event selects honorary recipients with a career achievement award. In 2013 the festival announced that the Achievement Award would be renamed the Reza Badiyi Achievement Award, in honor of the director/producer Reza Badiyi, recipient of the festival's first Achievement Award in 2009.[7]

Achievement Awards[edit]

Year Recipient Role
2009 Reza Badiyi Producer, director
2011 Bob Yari Producer
2013 Shohreh Aghdashloo Actress
2014 Shaun Toub Actor

Film Awards[edit]

2007[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Theme Award Ryan Haidarian Aref
Audience Favorite Mohammad Shirvani President Mir Qanbar
Best Comedy Kaveh Sejadhosseini Cold City
Best Animation Amir Mehran The Lost Waves
Best Story Bahman Dadfar Flying Next to the Red Chair
Best Drama Sasan Saleimani It Takes Time As Smoking A Cig
Best Documentary Mehdi Rahmani The Autumn Boys
Best Director Shahram Mokri The Dragonfly Storm (short)

2008[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Theme Award Armin Palangi Hidden Generation
Audience Favorite Aryana Farshad Mystic Iran
Best Animation Saeid Ghahari Rebirth of Rostam
Best Story Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6
Best Documentary Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6
Best Director Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6

2009[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Best Feature Film Sabine El Gemayel Niloofar
Audience Favorite Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore
Best Documentary Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore
Best Director Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore
Best Story Mohammad Nourizad Flags of Kaveh's Castle
Best Actor Abazar Noorizad Flags of Kaveh's Castle
Best Actress Mobina Aynehdar Niloofar
Best Short Film Ladan Yalzadeh The Florist

2011[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Audience Favorite Maryam Keshavarz Circumstance
Best Director Maryam Keshavarz Circumstance
Best Actress Nikohl Boosheri Circumstance
Best Actor Navid Negahban Liberation (Short)
Best Story Jon Goldman Diplomacy
Best Short Film Jon Goldman Diplomacy
Best Documentary Joe Ayella American Coup
Best Animation Ameneh Eslami Little Tale of Us

2012[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Audience Favorite Morteza Rezvani The Iran I Remember
Best Feature Film Dave Moutray/Shahaub Roudbari Losing Her
Best Feature Film Director Esmaeel Mihandoust A Very Close Encounter
Best Documentary Tanaz Eshaghian Be Like Others
Best Documentary Director Beate Petersen Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives
Best Story Ala Mohensi My City Pizza
Best Short Film Ana Lily Amirpour A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Best Short Film Director Ana Lily Amirpour Pashmaloo

2013[edit]

Award Recipient Film
Audience Favorite Peyman Moaadi Snow on Pines
Best Feature Film Youssef Delara/Michael D. Olmos Filly Brown
Best Feature Film Director Marjane Satrapi/Vincent Paronnaud Chicken with Plums
Best Documentary Aref Mohammadi A Survivor from Magadan
Best Documentary Director Nahid Persson Sarvestani My Stolen Revolution
Best Story Aref Mohammadi A Survivor from Magadan
Best Short Film Neysan Sobhani Dimensions
Best Short Film Director Parish Rahbar Fade
Best Animation Mo Davoudian Pepe and Lucas
Best Animation Director Mo Davoudian Pepe and Lucas

2014

Award Recipient Film
Best short film Ali Asgari More Than Two Hours
Best Short film Director Ethan Rains Still Here
Best Animation Behrouz Bagheri The Hard Dream
Best Documentary Iran's Unwanted Sons and daughters Out of Rain
Best Documentary Director Ayat Najafi No Land's Song
Best Feature film Mohammadreza Vatandoust When The Lemons Turned Yellow
Best Film Director Desiree Akhavan Appropriate Behavior
Best Story or Idea Nima Shayeghi Boys With Broken Ears
Audience Favorite K-von Moezzi Nowruz: Lost & found

2016

Award Recipient Film
Best Feature Film Salem Salavati The Last Winter
Best Short Film Ali Asghari The Baby
Best Documentary Shahriar Siami Shal Out Of Focus
Best Animation Maryam Farahzadi The Role Of Each Fret
Best Short Documentary Hilda Hashempour I.D.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Noor Film Festival. "NIFF Mission". Noor Film Festival. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  2. ^ G, Vida (2014-11-03). "Noor Iranian Film Festival". The Experience Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
  3. ^ de Yampert, Rick. "Noor film festival sheds light on Iran". News-Journal Online. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  4. ^ "PAAIA Takes the Noor Iranian Film Festival on Tour". PAAIA. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  5. ^ "4th Annual Noor Film Festival Announces Award Winners: "Circumstance" Sweeps Three Categories". The Burgett Group. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  6. ^ "Filmmakers - Rules & Guidelines for Submission". Noor Iranian Film Festival. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  7. ^ "6th Annual Noor Iranian Film Festival Announces Award Winners". Payvand News. Retrieved 11 April 2014.

External links[edit]