Iranian Directors
by bitaair | created - 29 Sep 2020 | updated - 29 Sep 2020 | PublicProminent Iranian directors
1. Asghar Farhadi
Writer | Forooshande
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...
2. Saeed Roustayi
Writer | Baradaran-e Leila
Saeed Roustayi (born 14 August 1989) is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. He graduated from Soore University with a Bachelor of Film and Television in Directing. Life+1 Day is his first major cinematic work. At the Fajr International Film Festival, Roustayi won 2 Crystal Simorghs for best ...
3. Danial Hajibarat
Director | The Madness
Danial Hajibarat is an Iranian Film Director, Writer, Producer and Actor born on June 4th 1983 in Tehran,Iran. He became famous in Iran for his special kind of films and has been an Independent filmmaker in Iran since 2010. In 2003, he began making short films and video clips, in the following ...
4. Milad Jarmooz
Writer | The Night
Milad Jarmooz is known for The Night (2020), Numbness (2017) and Dark Heritage.
5. Bahram Beyzaie
Writer | Sagkoshi
Bahram Beizai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts. By 1961 he had already spent a lot of time studying-and researching- ancient persian...
6. Abbas Kiarostami
Writer | Copie conforme
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...
7. Kiumars Poorahmad
Director | Otobuse shab
Kiumars Poorahmad was born on December 16, 1949 in Najafabad, Iran. He was a director and writer, known for Night Bus (2007), The Double Lottie (1996) and Where Are My Shoes? (2016). He was married to Mehraneh Rabi. He died on April 5, 2023 in Bandar-e Anzali, Gilan, Iran.
8. Majid Majidi
Writer | Bacheha-Ye aseman
Majid Majidi was born on April 17, 1959 in Tehran, Iran to a middle class family. He started acting in amateur theater groups at the age of fourteen. After receiving his high school diploma, he started studying art at the Institute of Dramatic Art in Tehran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, ...
9. Tahmineh Milani
Writer | Nimeye Penhan
Tahmineh Milani (born 1 September 1960) is a professional film director, screenwriter, and producer who came to the limelight by breaking all the traditional and conventional norms about women and their presence in Iran's society. Being sentenced to prison have not stopped her from expressing their...
10. Bahman Ghobadi
Director | Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand
Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even ...
11. Houman Seyyedi
Writer | Jang-e jahani sevom
Houman Seyyedi is an Iranian actor, director, screenwriter and editor. He has received various accolades, including six Crystal Simorghs-making him the only director to have three wins in Special Jury Prize category-two Hafez Awards, five Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Awards, a NETPAC...
12. Mostafa Kiaei
Director | Hamgonah
Mostafa Kiaei is known for The Accomplice (2020), Bulletproof (2012) and Ice Age (2015).
13. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Writer | Gabbeh
Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.
Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him ...
14. Dariush Mehrjui
Director | Gaav
Dariush Mehrjui was born to a middle-class family in Tehran. He showed interest in painting miniatures, music, and playing santoor and piano. He spent a lot of time going to the movies, particularly American films which were un-dubbed and inter-spliced with explanatory title cards that explained ...
15. Rakhshan Banietemad
Director | Zir-e poost-e shahr
Graduated in the field of film directing from The Faculty of Dramatic Arts and joined the Iranian TV in 1973 beginning her career as continuity girl and assistant director. Later on, she made a number of short documentaries and directed her first picture 'Kharej az Mahdudeh (1986)'. Her next films ...
16. Masud Kimiai
Director | Dandan-e-mar
Massoud Kimiaei was born in Tehran in 1941. He became well known when in 1969 he directed his second film, Gheisar (1969), which was considered a turning point in the Iranian cinema; he depicted the ethics and morals of the romanticized poor working class of the Croesus' Treasure (1965) genre ...
17. Ebrahim Hatamikia
Director | Be name pedar
Ebrahim Hatamikia, who is internationally renowned for his role in the cinema of Iran in the 1990s, was born in 1961 in Tehran, Iran from an Azarbaijani's family. He left the Art University where he studied script writing. He began his directing career with the film "The Identity" in 1986 and some ...
18. Mohammad Rasoulof
Director | Dast-neveshtehaa nemisoosand
Mohammad Rasoulof was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1972. He is an independent director, writer and producer. He studied sociology. Rasoulof started his filmmaking with documentaries and short films. For his first film 'Gagooman'(The Twilight, 2002) Rasoulof won the prize for the best film at the Fajr ...
19. Kianoush Ayari
Editor | Abadani-Ha
Kianoush Ayari was born on May 14, 1951 in Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran. He is an editor and director, known for The Abadanis (1993), To Be or Not to Be (1998) and Wake Up, Arezoo! (2005).
20. Bahman Farmanara
Director | Booye kafoor, atre yas
Bahman Farmanara is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Bahman Farmanara is the second son in a family of four brothers and one sister. The family business was Textile and he was the only son who did not join the business and went off to United Kingdom and later on to United ...
21. Ali Hatami
Director | Hezardastan
Abbas Ali Hatami was born in Tehran, Iran in 1944. He graduated from the College of Dramatic Arts and began his professional career as a writer of short TV screenplays and also as a playwright. Among his plays are: The Demon and the Bald Hassan, Adam and Eve, The Fisherman's Story, City of Oranges,...
22. Reza Mirkarimi
Producer | Be hamin sadegi
Reza Mirkarimi was born in 1967 in Tehran and graduated from the Fine Arts University in Graphic Arts. His cinema activities began in 1987 with a series of shorts followed by two TV series aimed at young people. His 1999 first feature, 'The Child and The Soldier', has won several national and ...
23. Niki Karimi
Director | Yek shab
Born in 1971 in Tehran, Niki Karimi is the most famous, internationally acclaimed Actress and filmmaker in Iran. She began her work as an actress with films such as "Sara" by Dariush Mehrjouii, which she won best actress award at "San Sebastian" film festival and in "Nantes film festival in 1992. ...
24. Maziar Miri
Director | Gradually
He, Maziar Miri, was born on 1 February 1974 in Darband neighborhood in Tehran.
He graduated in Film Editing, and started working in Editing Dept of Channel 2 IRIB in 1995. After making a few short films, working as an assistant in the cinema, and editing a few films and serials, He made His first ...
25. Mani Haghighi
Actor | Paziraie sadeh
Mani Haghighi is an Iranian film director, writer, film producer, and actor. Haghighi started making movies in 2001.
Haghighi was educated in Iran and, from the age of 15, Appleby College in Canada. He took a BA in philosophy at McGill University in Montréal, where he studied under Charles Taylor ...
26. Kamal Tabrizi
Director | Marmoulak
Kamal Mosaffa-ye Tabrizi is an Iranian film director. He was born in Tehran, with his parents having moved there from Tabriz. Kamal Tabrizi graduated from Tehran University of Art at Faculty of Cinema and Theater. He began his career with directing, writing and editing short films in 1980. His ...
27. Samira Makhmalbaf
Director | Panj é asr
Samira Makhmalbaf Filmmaker
Born on February 15,1980 in Tehran. At the age of eight, she played in "The Cyclist" directed by her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf the celebrated Iranian filmmaker.
At the age of 17, she directed her first feature titled "The Apple" and She went on to become the youngest ...
28. Sirus Alvand
Director | Yek-bar-baraye-hamishe
Sirus Alvand was born on January 31, 1951 in Tehran, Iran. He is a writer and director, known for Once for Ever (1993), Hotel carton (1997) and Bandari (1973).
29. Siroos Moghaddam
Director | Paytakht
Siroos Moghaddam is known for Capital (2011), Michael (2015) and Nargess (2006).
30. Mehran Modiri
Director | Pavarchin
Mehran Modiri is considered to be the leading artist in social satire in Iran. His various series which have been broadcast through IRIB have set records in terms of viewership (an estimated 85% viewership when he is on air), as well as make him a popular personality among masses. In 2008 Modiri ...
31. Kiarash Asadizadeh
Director | Gass
Kiarash Asadizadeh is known for Acrid (2013), Seven (2023) and The Gap (2015).
32. Shirin Neshat
Director | Zanan-e bedun-e mardan
Shirin Neshat was born on March 26, 1957 in Ghazvin, Iran. She is a director and producer, known for Women Without Men (2009), Looking for Oum Kulthum (2017) and Land of Dreams (2021).
33. Forugh Farrokhzad
Editor | Khaneh siah ast
Farugh Farrokhzad was primarily a poet. Indeed, she is regarded as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century in Iran, which has a millennium of poetic tradition behind it. Although she only made one film, the 22 minute so-called documentary "The House is Black", this work is ...
Tell Your Friends