Best Iranian Directors
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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 left IRIB to star and direct a home-entertainment series; a series which instead of broadcast is released on DVD on a weekly basis, entitled Ghahve-ye Talkh (Bitter Coffee). Although Ghahve-ye Talkh's delay in release put it in second place in terms of innovative media (another series, Ghalb-e Yakhi was released first, making it the first ever such program in Iran), but its sales surpassed its competitor by over double, a revelation which the industry and critics have linked directly with Modiri's popularity with his fans. In 2012, after Ghahve-ye Talkh was completed, Modiri signed on to play the lead role for his competition show, Ghalb-e Yakhi's 3rd Season. Modiri is a writer, director, actor and a recording artist. He has performed in front of sold out audiences in Tehran, including a concert benefiting UNICEF. He was named the 20th most powerful person in Iran - and the only entertainer on the list- by Newsweek magazine in 2009.
Modiri is an avid reader, loves classical music and is very learned in philosophy, fine arts, classic literature and biology. He is divorced and has two children.- Writer
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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 directing and best screenplay. He received the 2016 Reflet d'Or for Best Feature at the Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans. His works primarily focus on issues of social injustice, as well as his portrayals of women in Iranian society.- Writer
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Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Iranian cinema as well as world cinema in the 21st century. His films have gained recognition for their focus on the human condition, and portrayals of intimate and challenging stories of internal family conflicts. In 2012, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. That same year, he also received the Legion of Honour from France.
Farhadi was born in Isfahan, Iran. At the age of 15, in 1987, he joined the Isfahan branch office of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society, which had been established for 4 years earlier and he made several short films. He is also a graduate of theatre, with a BA in dramatic arts and MA in stage direction from University of Tehran and Tarbiat Modares University, respectively.
While completing his studies, he wrote a number of radio plays for Iran's national broadcasting service and directed several television programs. In 2001 Farhadi co-wrote the screenplay for the political satire Ertefa-e past (Low Heights, 2002), with famed war film director, Ebrahim Hatamikia.
Farhadi's first feature film, Dancing in the Dust (2003), tells the story of a young man who is forced to divorce his wife and go hunting snakes in the desert in order to repay his debts to his in-laws. His next film, The Beautiful City (2004), is about a young man who is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
Farhadi's breakthrough came with his third film, About Elly (2009), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The film tells the story of a group of friends who go on a weekend trip to the Caspian Sea, and the secrets that are revealed over the course of the weekend.
Farhadi's next film, A Separation (2011), won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film tells the story of a middle-class Iranian couple who are going through a divorce, and the moral dilemmas they face as they try to decide what is best for their young daughter.
Farhadi's subsequent films, The Past (2013) and The Salesman (2016), were also critically acclaimed. The Salesman won a second Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Farhadi's latest film, A Hero (2021), was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of a man who is released from prison and tries to win back his wife's trust.
Farhadi's films are known for their their complex and suspenseful plots, their realistic characters, and their exploration of moral dilemmas. His films often deal with themes of family, relationships, and social class.
Farhadi is a master of creating suspense, and his films are often compared to those of Alfred Hitchcock. He is also a skilled director of actors, and his films have featured some of the most celebrated Iranian actors, including Shahab Hosseini, Leila Hatami, and Taraneh Alidoosti.
In 2022, Farhadi was accused of plagiarism by a former student, who claimed that he had stolen the idea for his film A Hero from a documentary she had made. Farhadi denied the allegations, and a court in Iran eventually ruled in his favor. However, the allegations have tarnished Farhadi's reputation and raised questions about his creative process.
Asghar Farhadi is one of the most important filmmakers of our time. His films are both entertaining and thought-provoking, and they offer a unique insight into Iranian society and culture. He is a true auteur, and his work is sure to be studied and admired for many years to come.- Director
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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 through his main protagonist, the titular Gheisar (1969). But Kimiaei's film generated another genre in Iranian popular cinema: the tragic action drama.
Without any academic training in cinema or theater, and with only a few years of experience as assistant director, Kimiai became a historical figure in the Iranian cinema. He learned film making from the movies, and of his early days of contact with the cinema. He recalls how he used to spend hours outside the movie theaters of Tehran, listening to the sound track of the films blaring from the defective loudspeakers fixed outside the cinema, and trying to visualize the action with the help of oral synopsis furnished by friends who had seen the movie.
His other lively memory from his childhood is the scene of battle between Rostam and Ashkbous (heroes of Ferdowsi's Book of Kings) painted on the back of the cart in which his father carried flour for bakeries. When the cart was in motion, the combatants seemed animated to the young Massoud who habitually walked behind the cart and tried to guess the end of the battle.
Kimiai had difficult childhood. He was restless and often got into fights, which, at times, ended in the police station.
Then came the period when Kimiai directed his energies to books. He read voraciously, especially books on cinema. That was followed by frequent visits to film studios in search of a job, until he met film director Samuel Khachikian, from whom he learned the first lessons in the techniques of film making, and began his film career in 1965 as Khachikian's assistant. But he was too young to be allowed independent work, and for some time, he had to be content with preparing publicity materials for American films.
When he first proposed a screenplay from which to make a film, the head of studio wouldn't believe Kimiai could make a film until the ambitious young man made a one-minute scene from his screenplay and that convinced the studio bosses that he could make professionally acceptable films.- Director
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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, Talisman and Silk. He began his professional film career in 1970 by writing and directing Hassan, the Bald (1970). In the following years, he developed a personal style that was characterized by melodious dialogue, traditional Iranian ambiance created through architecture and set design. His last film, World Champion Takhti, remained unfinished because of his death in 1996 due to cancer.- Director
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Kiumars Poorahmad was born on 16 December 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 5 April 2023 in Bandar-e Anzali, Gilan, Iran.- Writer
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Sorush Sehhat was born on 29 November 1965. He is a writer and director, known for Dance with Me (2019), Bachelors (2016) and Amir Bay (2021).- Director
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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 the plot throughout the films. At this time Mehrjui started to learn English so as to better enjoy the films. The film that had the strongest impact on him as a child was Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves. At the age of 12, Mehrjui built a 35 mm projector, rented two-reel films and began selling tickets to his neighborhood friends. In 1959, Mehrjui moved to the United States to study at University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA) Department of Cinema. One of his teachers there was Jean Renoir, whom Mehrjui credited for teaching him how to work with actors. Mehrjui was dissatisfied with the film program due to its emphasis on the technical aspects of film and the quality of most of the teachers. He switched his major to philosophy and graduated from UCLA in 1964. Mehrjui started his own literary magazine in 1964, Pars Review. The magazine's intention was to bring contemporary Persian literature to western readers. During this time he wrote his first script with the intention of filming it in Iran. He moved back to Tehran in 1965. Back in Tehran, Mehrjui found employment as a journalist and screenwriter. From 1966 to 1968 he was a teacher at Tehran's Center for Foreign Language Studies, where he taught classes in literature and English language. He also gave lectures on films and literature at the Center for Audiovisual Studies through the University of Tehran.
Dariush Mehrjui made his debut in 1966 with Diamond 33, a big budget parody of the James Bond film series. The film was not financially successful. But his second feature film, Gaav, brought him national and international recognition. The film Gaav, a symbolic drama, is about a simple villager and his nearly mythical attachment to his cow. The film is adapted from a short story by renowned Iranian literary figure Gholamhossein Sa'edi. Sa'edi was a friend of Mehrjui and suggested the idea to him when Mehrjui was looking for a suitable second film, and they collaborated on the script. Through Sa'edi, Mehrjui met the actors Ezzatolah Entezami and Ali Nassirian, who were performing in one of Sa'edi's plays. Mehrjui would work with Entezami and Nassirian throughout his career. The film's score was composed by musician Hormoz Farhat. The film was completed in 1969. In the film, Entezami stars as Masht Hassan, a peasant in an isolated village in southern Iran. Hassan has a close relationship with his cow, which is his only possession (Mehrjui has said that Entezami even resembled a cow in the film). When other people from Hassan's village discover that the cow has been mysteriously killed, they decide to bury the cow and tell Hassan that it has run away. While in mourning for the cow, Hassan goes to the barn where it was kept and begins to assume the cow's identity. When his friends attempt to take him to a hospital, Hassan commits suicide. Gaav was banned for over a year by the Ministry of Culture and Arts, despite being one of the first two film in Iran to receive government funding. This was most likely due to Sa'edi being a controversial figure in Iran. His work was highly critical of the Pahlavi government, and he had been arrested sixteen times. When it was finally released in 1970, it was highly praised and won an award at the Ministry of Culture's film festival, but it was still denied an export permit. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and submitted to the Venice Film Festival where, without programming or subtitles, it became the largest event of that year's festival. It won the International Critics Award at Venice, and later that year, Entezami won the Best Actor Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Along with Masoud Kimiai's Qeysar and Nasser Taqvai's Calm in Front of Others, the film Gaav initiated the Iranian New Wave movement and is considered a turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. The public received it with great enthusiasm, despite the fact that it had ignored all the traditional elements of box office attraction. It was screened internationally and received high praise from many film critics. Several of Iran's prominent actors (Entezami, Nassirian, Jamshid Mashayekhi, and Jafar Vali) played roles in the film. While waiting for Gaav to be released and gaining international recognition, Mehrjui was busy directing two more films. In 1970 he shot Agha-ye Hallou (Mr. Naive), a comedy which starred and was written by Ali Nassirian. The film also starred Fakhri Khorvash and Entezami. In the film, Nassirian plays a simple, naive villager who goes to Tehran to find a wife. While in the big city he is treated roughly and constantly fooled by local hustlers and con artists. When he goes into a dress shop to purchase a wedding gown, he meets a beautiful young woman (Fakhri Khorvash) and proposes to her. The young woman turns out to be a prostitute who rejects him and takes his money, spending him back to his village empty handed but more world-wise. Agha-ye Hallou was screened at the Sepas Film Festival in Tehran in 1971 where it won awards for Best Film and Best Director. Later that year it was screened at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. It was a commercial success in Iran. After finishing Agha-ye Hallou in 1970, Mehrjui traveled to Berkeley, California and began writing an adaptation of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck for a modern-day Iranian setting. He went back to Iran later in 1970 to shoot Postchi (The Postman), which starred Nassirian, Entezami and Jaleh Sam. In the film, Nassirian plays Taghi, a miserable civil servant whose life spirals into chaos. He spends his days as an unhappy mail carrier and has two night jobs in order to pay his debts. His misery has caused impotence and he is experimented upon by an amateur herbalist who is one of his employers. His only naive hope is that he will win the national lottery. When he discovers that his wife is the mistress of his town's wealthiest landowner, Taghi escapes to the local forest where he experiences a brief moment of peace and harmony. His wife comes looking for him, and in a fit of rage Taghi murders her and is eventually caught for his crime. Postchi faced the same censorship issues as Gaav, but was eventually released in 1972. It was screened in Iran at the 1st Tehran International Film Festival and at the Sepas Film festival. Internationally it was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a special mention, the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it received the Interfilm Award, and the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight. In 1973 Mehrjui began directing what was to be his most acclaimed film, The Cycle Mehrjui got the idea for the film when a friend suggest that he investigate the black market and illicit blood traffic in Iran. Horrified with what he found, Mehrjui took the idea to Gholamhossein Sa'edi, who had written a play on the subject, "Aashghaal-duni". The play became the basis for the script, which then had to be approved by the Ministry of Culture before production could begin. With pressure from the Iranian medical community, approval was delayed for a year until Mehrjui began shooting the film in 1974. The film stars Saeed Kangarani, Esmail Mohammadi, Ezzatollah Entezami, Ali Nassirian and Fourouzan. In the film, Kangarani plays Ali, a teenager who has brought his dying father (Mohammadi) to Tehran in order to find medical treatment. They are too poor to afford any help from the local hospital, but Dr. Sameri (Entezami) offers them money in exchange for giving illegal and unsafe blood donations at a local blood bank. Ali begins giving blood and eventually works for Dr. Sameri in luring blood donors, despite spreading diseases in the process. Ali meets another doctor (Nassirian) who is attempting to establish a legitimate blood bank, and helps Dr. Sameri in sabotaging his plans. Ali also meets and becomes the lover of a young nurse, played by Fourouzan. As Ali becomes more and more involved in the illegal blood trafficking, his father's health worsens until he finally dies and Ali must decide what path his life will take. The films title, Dayereh mina, refers to a line from a poem by Hafiz Shirazi: "Because of the cycle of the universe, my heart is bleeding." The film was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture but encountered opposition from the Iranian medical establishment and was banned for three years. It was finally released in 1977, with help from pressure from the Carter administration to increase human rights and intellectual freedoms in Iran. Because of a crowded film marketplace, the film premiered in Paris, and then was released internationally where it received rave reviews and was compared to Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados and Pier Paolo Pasolini's Accattone. The film won the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1978. During this time, Iran was going through great political changes. The events leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 were causing a gradual loosening of strict censorship laws, which Mehrjui and other artists had great hopes for. While waiting for The Cycle to be released, Mehrjui worked on several documentaries. Alamut, a documentary on the Isamailis, was commissioned by Iranian National Television in 1974. He was also commissioned by the Iranian Blood Transfusion Center to create three short documentaries about safe and healthy blood donations. The films were used by the World Health Organization in several countries for years. In 1978, the Iranian Ministry of Health commissioned Mehrjui to make the documentary Peyvast kolieh, about kidney transplants.
After the Islamic revolution Mehrjui directed Hayat-e Poshti Madrese-ye Adl-e Afagh (The School We Went to) in 1980. The film stars Ezzatollah Entezami and Ali Nassirian and is from a story by Fereydoon Doostdar. The film was sponsored by the Iranian Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, whose filmmaking department was co-founded by Abbas Kiarostami. The film, seen as an allegory for the recent revolution, is about a group of high school students who join forces and rebel against their authoritative and abusive school principal. Film critic Hagir Daryoush criticized both the film and Mehrjui as propaganda and a work of the new regime more than Mehrjui himself. In 1981, Mehrjui and his family traveled to Paris and remained there for several years, along with several other Iranian refugees in France. During this time he made a feature-length semi-documentary about the poet Arthur Rimbaud for French TV, Voyage au Pays de Rimbaud in 1983. It was shown at the 1983 Venice Film Festival and at the 1983 London Film Festival. In 1985, Mehrjui and his family returned to Iran and Mehrjui resumed his film career under the new regime. In Hamoun (1990), a portrait of an intellectual whose life is falling apart, Mehrjui sought to depict his generation's post-revolutionary turn from politics to mysticism. Hamoon was voted the best Iranian film ever by readers and contributors to the Iranian journal Film Monthly. In 1995, Mehrjui made Pari, an unauthorized loose film adaptation of J. D. Salinger's book Franny and Zooey. Though the film could be distributed legally in Iran since the country has no official copyright relations with the United States, Salinger had his lawyers block a planned screening of the film at Lincoln Center in 1998. Mehrjui called Salinger's action "bewildering," explaining that he saw his film as "a kind of cultural exchange." His follow-up film, 1997's Leila, is a melodrama about an urban, upper-middle-class couple who learn that the wife is unable to bear children. Modern Iranian cinema begins with Dariush Mehrjui. Mehrjui introduced realism, symbolism, and the sensibilities of art cinema. His films have some resemblance with those of Rosselini, De Sica and Satyajit Ray, but he also added something distinctively Iranian, in the process starting one of the greatest modern film waves. The one constant in Mehrjui's work has been his attention to the discontents of contemporary, primarily urban, Iran. His film The Pear Tree (1999) has been hailed as the apotheosis of the director's examination of the Iranian bourgeoisie. Since his film The Cow in 1969, Mehrjui, along with Nasser Taqvai and Masoud Kimiai, has been instrumental in paving the way for the Iranian cinematic renaissance, so called the "Iranian New Wave."- Director
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Naser Taghvai is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. Naser Taghvai was born in Abadan, Iran. After early experiences as a story writer, he began filming documentaries in 1967. He made his debut, Tranquility in the Presence of Others, in 1970 and gained the attention of Iranian critics. He became famous by directing the TV series My Uncle Napoleon. His concern for the ethnography and atmosphere of southern Iran is notable in his films. Most of his works have been based on novels. Captain Khorshid is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, which won the third prize at the 48th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in 1988. In 1999 he directed a segment of the film Tales of Kish, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.- Writer
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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 and pre-Islamic culture and literature. This led him to studying Eastern Theatre and traditional Iranian theatre & arts which would help him formulate a new non-western identity for Iranian theatre. By 1961 he had already published numerous articles in various Arts and Literary Journals. In 1962 he made his first short film (4 minutes) in 8mm format. In the next two years he wrote several plays and published "Theatre in Japan". In 1971 he made his first feature film Ragbar ( Downpour ) which to this day remains one of the best Iranian films ever made.- Actor
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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 Award and an Asian New Talent Award. His sixth film, World War III (2022) won the Orizzonti Award for Best Film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
Houman Seyyedi is an Iranian theater, television and cinema actor & director, known for his role in " The Endless Way " series.
His directing of short movies, including '35 Meters Below Sea Level' and 'Blue Tooth', earned him several awards at Tehran International Short Film Festival. He also directed his first long movie 'Africa' in 2010.
Seyyedi, who was the writer as well as editor of 'Africa', managed to receive an award for Best Movie in video works section of the 29 Fajr International Film Festival.
He has participated in several movies, including 'Fireworks Wednesday' (2005), 'Barefoot in Heaven' (2005), 'He Who Goes to Sea' (2006), 'The Wound on Eve's Shoulder' (2007), 'The Freeway' (2010), 'Thirteen' (2012), 'The Exclusive Line' (2013), 'Confessions of My Dangerous Mind' (2014), 'Buffalo' (2014), 'I am Diego Maradona' (2014), 'Sleep Bridge' (2015) and 'Profiles' (2015).- Actor
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Saeed Aghakhani was born on 23 February 1972 in Bijar, Iran. He is an actor and director, known for The Long Farewell (2015), It Turned Into Blood (2020) and Noon Khe (2019).- Actor
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Reza Attaran was born in Mashhad, Khorasan, I.R.Iran. He is an Iranian actor, singer, writer and director. He has appeared in both films and television shows. Attaran won the Best Actor award at the 2008 Gol Aga Comedy Film Festival. He made his big introduction in 1995 when he was cast in Saate Khosh (1995-1996) directed by Mehran Modiri.- Director
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Hasan Fathi is known for Shahrzad (2015), Jeyran (2022) and The Postman Doesn't Knock 3 Times (2009).- Director
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Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian is known for Standing in the Dust (2016), Lottery (2018) and Mortal Wound (2021).- Writer
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Masoud Jafari Jozani (born in Malayer, Iran) is a film director, screenwriter and film producer. He received an M.A. in cinema from the San Francisco State University (1977). In his feature films, he generally deals with heroic subjects in the natural environment with a historical and epic tone. Some of his films were awarded local prizes. His 2009 film In the Wind's Eye, the conclusion to his television series Dar Chashm-e Baad, was partially filmed in Los Angeles, making it the first Iranian production to be shot in the United States since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. With a budget of US$12 million, it is also among the most expensive films in Iranian history. He is curently working on the Cyrus the Great project, which is in the pre-production phase.- Director
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Nima Javidi is an Iranian screenwriter and director, born in 1980. His first feature "Melbourne" (2014) which was the opening film in critics' week in Venice film festival(2014) has attended more than 90 festivals around the world including Tokyo film festival, Stockholm film festival , Zurich film festival, Cairo film festival, Mardel plata film festival, Shanghai film festival, Istanbul film festival, etc. He received 14 international awards for his first film "Melbourne" namely: Best Film in Cairo Film Festival (2014), Best Script in Stockholm Film Festival(2014), Best Script in Asia Pacific Awards(2014), Best Director and Best script in Gijon Film Festival(2014), etc. His next feature "The Warden" was shown in 63rd London film festival as its premier and attended more than 27 festivals around the world . His next script which is written with famous Iranian director Majid Majidi is the "Sun Children" (directed by Majid Majid) that attended in official section of Venice film festival(2020) and was among the 15 movies shortlisted in the foreign language film category at the 93rd Academy awards. His last project is a series named "The Actor" which won the Grand Prize in Series Mania Festival(2023) and Honorable Mention in Serien Camp Festival(2023) and nominated for Best Mini series, Best Script and Best Actor in Seoul Drama Awards(2023) Moreover he is a member of Asia Pacific Academy Awards and was a member of jury in 54th Gijon film festival (2016), 19th Tbilisi film festival (2018) and 2th Dostluk film festival (2019)- Director
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Saman Moghadam was born in Tehran, Iran on 6th of January, 1969. He became interested in filmmaking and storytelling in his teens, and continued to follow up on his dream of becoming a filmmaker after graduating high school. He studied filmmaking at the Cinematic Educational Complex in Tehran. Moghadam was trained by such veteran directors including Kimiayi, Taghvaee, Khosrow Dehghan and others. Upon graduating from school at the age of 20, Moghadam started working as assistant director to veteran director Massoud Kimiayi. After gaining enough experience, Moghadam set out on his own and finally in December of 1997 he wrote and directed Siavash, starring Hedye Tehrani and Ali Ghorbanzadeh. Siavash went on to receive much accolade from national and international festivals and awards, making Moghadam a household name. From there, Moghadam directed his next film, again written by him entitled Party. Yet again, Party received much attention, gaining Hedye Tehrani a best supporting actress award at Korea's prestigious Pyongyang International Film Festival. Saman Moghadam then made Maxx, a comedy about mistaken identity starring veteran cinema and theatre actor Farhad Ayeesh. Maxx went on to become the only Iranian film to sell over US$1 million dollars in sales in North American market alone without a distributing company behind it. Moghadam's first foray into series was Hamraz, a 30 episode television series made in 2002 for IRIB. This was followed by Cafe Setareh, a movie about the daily going-ons of a neighbourhood in Tehran. Yet again, Moghadam's touch proved golden in that Cafe Setareh was nominated for numerous awards in various national and international festivals. Moghadam's second series for IRIB was Paridokht, made and broadcasted in 2004. Moghadam's next project Sad Sal beh in Sal-ha (2006) was and still is forbidden for showing in Iran. His third IRIB series was called Shams Ol'Emareh, a 50 episode series about the life of a young woman. Ye Asheghaneye Sadeh was Moghadam's next film which is awaiting theatrical release date was made in 2010. Moghadam has been working on the third season of the acclaimed series, Ghalbe Yakhi (Frozen Heart).- Director
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Mohamad Reza Honarmand is known for The Visit (1995), The Changed Man (1998) and Azizam, Man Kook Nistam (2002).- Writer
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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, his interest in cinema brought him to act in various films, notably Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Boycott (1986) where he played a frustrated communist and Ali Asghar Shadravan's The Execution (1986) where he played the role of real life character, Andarzgoo. Later, he started writing and directing short films. His feature film screenwriting and directing debut is marked by Baduk (1992), which was presented at the Quinzaine of Cannes and won awards at Tehran's Fajr Film Festival. Since then, he has written and directed many noteworthy films that won worldwide recognition, notably Children of Heaven (1997), winner of the Best Picture award at the Montreal International Film Festival and nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, The Color of Paradise (1999), which also won the Best Picture award from Montreal International Film Festival and set a new record of box office for an Asian film, and Baran (2001), which won several major awards worldwide, notably the Best Picture award at the 25th Montreal World Film Festival and received nomination for the European Film Academy Award. In 2001, during the Afghanistan anti-Taliban war, he produced Barefoot to Herat (2003), an emotional documentary about Afghanistan's refugee camps that won the Fipresci Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Majjid Majid has also received the Douglas Sirk Award in 2001 and the Amici Vittorio de Sica Award in 2003. In 2005, he directed The Willow Tree (2005) about a blind man who falls in love with someone other than his wife when he gets the chance to see again, which won four awards at the 2005 Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. He is one of Iran's most influential directors and his films have a simple and poetic feel to them.- Writer
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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 as a filmmaker at the age of 30. Since then he has made many movies and has become one of the most important figures in contemporary Iranian film. He is also a major figure in the arts world, and has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his photography, short films and poetry. He is an iconic figure for what he has done, and he has achieved it all by believing in the arts and the creativity of his mind.- Director
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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 first professional experience was assistant directing in Hatamikia's Identity. He is teaching film making and is famous for his films The Lizard and Leili is with Me. His son Ali Tabrizi is also a young director.- Director
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Vahid Jalilvand is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, actor, voice actor and film editor. His first directed film, Wednesday, May 9 (2015) (Chaharshanbeh, 19 Ordibehesht), has received massive admiration from multiple national and international film festivals. He received Fipersci Award in Best Film Horizons and International Critic's Week from 72nd Venice International Film Festival for this film. Jalilvand had further success with his next film No Date, No Signature (2017) (Bedoune Tarikh, Bedoune Emza). The film earned Jalilvand and his actor, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Orizzonti Awards of 74th Venice International Film Festival for best director and best actor, respectively.- Director
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Jafar Panahi (Born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by an Iranian film at Cannes. Panahi was quickly recognized as one of the most influential film-makers in Iran. Although his films were often banned in his own country, he continued to receive international acclaim from film theorists and critics and won numerous awards, including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for The Mirror (1997), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle (2000), and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Offside (2006). His films are known for their humanistic perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished, and women. Hamid Dabashi has written, "Panahi does not do as he is told - in fact he has made a successful career in not doing as he is told." After several years of conflict with the Iranian government over the content of his films (including several short-term arrests), Panahi was arrested in March 2010 along with his wife, daughter, and 15 friends and later charged with propaganda against the Iranian government. Despite support from filmmakers, film organizations, and human rights organizations from around the world, in December 2010 Panahi was sentenced to a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media, or from leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage. While awaiting the result of an appeal he made This Is Not a Film (2011), a documentary feature in the form of a video diary in spite of the legal ramifications of his arrest. It was smuggled out of Iran in a flash drive hidden inside a cake and shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In February 2013 the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival showed Closed Curtain (2013) by Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi in competition; Panahi won the Silver Bear for Best Script. Panahi's new film Taxi (2015) premiered in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won Golden Bear, the prize awarded for the best film in the festival.- Director
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Narges Abyar graduated in Persian literature; She started writing books in 1997. Up to the present, she has written more than thirty story and fiction books for children, young adults and adults. She was selected as an Oscar Academy member in 2020.
Her famous novels are namely: . Mountain on the Shoulder of the Tree . A Boy with insatiable worms on his body . Third Eye . The Legend of A Skinny Spring . It Was Neither a Day Nor a Night . The Poems of a Sky-clad Fish . Story of Two Fives . The Agitated Existence of a Prosperous Idol
She has written and directed five drama films. Her recent film is called, Pinto. She had also made several short and feature-length documentaries since 2005. Her first experience was a fiction film called "The Kind Dead-End". She pursued her directing career further with seven features and documentaries and four cinema films, as listed below: . The Kind Dead-End (fiction 2006) . The story of a believable story (fiction 2007) . One day after the tenth day (documentary 2007)- Winner of the Best Documentary; Ismaili Festival, Egypt
- Winner of the Grand Prize; Batumi Festival, Georgia
- Winner of the Cinematic Success Award; AZA Festival, Greece
- Received Diploma of Honor; Iguana Festival, Italy
- Participated in the thirty-five World Festivals
. The Day of the End (Documentary 2008)- Winner of the Best Documentary, Cinema Verite Festival, Iran
. Mother of the City (documentary 2008)- Winner of the Best Film Award and Best Semi-long Script, Yazd Short Film Festival, Iran
. Ulcer,( Nasur ) (fiction 2009)- Winner of the Best Film; Three Decades of Presence Festival, Iran
- Attending the Plant Focus Festival, Greece
- Attending the Dhaka Lit Fest, Bangladesh
. Shirpooshan, (documentary 2010)- Nominated for the Best Documentary Award; Grand Ave Festival, Poland
. Objects In Mirror (2013)- Nominated in the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), Shanghai, China
- Nominated in the 30th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPF), United States,
- Nominated in the Heartland International Film Festival, USA, 2014
- Winner of the Audience Award and Best Actress Award; Silver Akbuzat Film Festival, UFA RUSSIA, 2014
- Winner of the Best Film Prize; Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil, France, 2015
. Track 143 (2014)- Nominated for seven awards and winner of three Crystal Simorghs of the Audience Award, Jury Special Award and Best Actress; 32nd Fajr Film Festival, Iran.
- Winner of the Audience choice award and the Jury Special Actress Award; 1st Reel Sydney Festival of World Cinema, Australia
- Winner of the Best Direction & Best Actress Award; 8th International Film festival, "East-West" Orenburg, Russia
- Winner of the Jury's Special Award; Volokolamsky Rubezh international film festival, 2015, Russia
- Winner of the Best Women Film Award; 8th Jaipur Int'l Film Festival, 2016, India
- Winner of the Best Women Film Award, 14th Dhaka Int'l Film Festival, 2016, Bangladesh
- Winner of the Best Film Award; Golden Tower International Film Festival, Ingushetia, Russia 2015
- Winner of the Best Film Award; Busan International Film Festival, Korea , 2014
. Breath (2016)- Selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards
- Winner of the Best Director Awards; 20th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia
- Winner of the Special Jury Award and Best Actress Award; Fajr International Film Festival
- Winner of the Best Director Award and Best Actor of Children and Youth Award; 24th Minsk Film Festival, Belarus
- Winner of the Crystal Simorgh of the Best Film in the National View; 34th Fajr Film Festival, Iran
- Winner of the Crystal Simorgh for the Best Supporting Actress, 34th Fajr Film Festival, Iran
- Winner of the Statue of Best Supporting Actress; Celebration of Iran's Criticts and Writers Association
- Winner the Best Children's Film Award; 10th Asia Pacific Film Award, Australia-
- Winner the Best Actress Award, Best Director and Best Actor of Children and Youth; 1st Iranian Film Festival in Wisconsin, USA
- Attendance at the 15th Pune Film Festival, India
- Attendance at the 8th Sofia Film Festival in Bulgaria
- Attendance at the Iranian Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Attendance at the 27th Iranian Film Festival, Chicago, USA
. When the Moon Was Full (2019)- Winner of six Crystal Simorgh of the Best Film, the Best Director, the Best Actor, the Best Actress, the Best Supporting Actress and the Best Makeup Award; 37th fair film festival and nominated for seven Crystal Simorgh in other sections of this festival
- Winner of the Audience Award in the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn, Estonia
- Winner of the Jury's Grand Prize, The Student Award and The Best Performance Award; Carcassonne International Political Film Festival, 2019 France
- Nominated for Merit Statue in fourteen sections of competition and given the "record of most nominated" in 21st House of Cinema, Iran
- Winner of three Merit Statues; 21st House of Cinema, Iran
Judging records at film festivals:- Member of the Oscar Academy, 2020
- Member of the jury of the 37th Fajr National Film Festival, 2020
- Member of the jury of the 38th Fajr International Film Festival, 2019
- Member of the Jury of the 25th Listapad Film Festival in Minsk, Belarus, 2018
- Member of the jury of the 15th Pune International Film Festival in India, 2017
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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 feminist ideas freely and finally her style has become a canon against which other feminist works would be evaluated. Milani was born 1960 in Tabriz, Iran. She is the wife of the Iranian actor and producer Mohammad Nikbin.- Director
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Pouran Derakhshandeh was born in 1951 in Iran. She is a director and producer, known for Hush! Girls Don't Scream (2013), Under the Smoky Roof (2017) and Little Bird of Happiness (1988).- Director
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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 are 'Zard-e Ghanari (1988)', 'Pul-e Khareji (1989)', 'Nargess (1992)' and 'Rusari Abi (1995)'.- Director
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Hossein Soheili Zadeh is known for Mannequin (2019), Raviye Koochak (2002) and Setare-ye Man (2008).- Director
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Shahram Mokri was born on 17 August 1978 in Kermanshah, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for Fish & Cat (2013), Careless Crime (2020) and Ashkan, the Charmed Ring and Other Stories (2008).- Director
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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 short films and documentaries about the Iran-Iraq War. His movies are considered to be the best that tackles the war and the issues surrounding it. His works have often received admiration in national film festivals. "The Glass Agency" and "In the Name of the Father" have won him the best screenplay and directing awards in the sixteenth and twenty-fourth Fajr International Film Festival respectively. His recent works have also been on international screens: "The Glass Agency" in Berlin and "The Red Ribbon" in San Sebastian.- Director
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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 feature film Unfinished Song in 2000, and entered the professional world of film-making. In addition to making films in the cinema, He has been making TV series and editing His colleagues' films during the past few years. He was elected one of the nine members of Central Council of Directors' Union by the General Assembly of Iranian Film Directors' Union for 4 terms, since 2006. Also He is now serving the Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds (Khaneh Cinema) as the Deputy of Development and Planning. In 2011, He managed and held the 15th Iranian Feast of Cinema as the president of the Feast.
He married in 1997. Rira is his only daughter.- Writer
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Amir Naderi is one of the most influential figures of 20th century Persian cinema. He developed his knowledge of cinema by watching films at the theater where he worked as a boy, reading film criticism, and making relationships with leading film critics. He began his career with still photography for some notable Iranian features. In the 1970s, Mr. Naderi turned to directing, and made some of the most important features of the New Iranian Cinema. In 1971, his directorial debut, GOODBYE, FRIEND, was released in Iran. Amir Naderi first came into the international spotlight with films that are now known as cinema classics, THE RUNNER (1985), and WATER, WIND, DUST (1989). THE RUNNER is considered by many critics to be one of the most influential films of the past quarter century. After expatriating to New York in the early '90s, Amir Naderi continued to produce new work. He was named a Rockefeller Film and Video Fellow in 1997, and has served as an artist in residence and instructor at Columbia University, the University of Las Vegas, and New York's School of Visual Arts. His US films have premiered at the Film Society of Lincoln Center/ MoMA's New Directors/ New Films series, the Venice, Cannes, Tribeca, and Sundance Film Festivals. His film SOUND BARRIER (2005) had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the prestigious Roberto Rossellini Prize at the Rome Film Festival. His last feature film VEGAS: BASED ON A TRUE STORY (2008) was in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the CinemAvvenire Best Film in Competition Prize and the SIGNIS Award. The film was also shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the Pusan International Film Festival and CineVegas in Las Vegas. His last three films MARATHON, SOUND BARRIER, and VEGAS were all shown at the FILMeX Film Festival in Tokyo.