Frontrunners of the “Hope Manifestation” are The 23, The Ocean Beyond the Window, and That Night’s Train.
The closing ceremony of the Hope Manifestation section of the 32nd International Film Festival for Children and Youth (IFFCY) was held on Monday evening in Isfahan, where the frontrunners of the section were announced.
The ceremony was attended by the Director of the festival Alireza Tabesh, Head of Iran’s Cinema Organization Hossein Entezami, Isfahan’s Mayor Qodratollah Nowruzi, and the President of Isfahan City Council Alireza Nasr, as well as several other figures.
Tabesh said that the festival kicked off on the eve of a happy religious festivity in presence of the cheerful children and friendly people of Isfahan on August 18 and by the closing ceremony on August 26, more than 180 films will have been screened.
This year, as a result of Iranian Youth Cinema Society and Farabi Cinema Foundation, children all across Iran shared the excitement and joy of the festival, and in 146 areas of the country the films were screened for the children from flood-hit and less-privileged areas, he added.
Cinema is a collective art and the genre of children and young adults requires a national resolution, Tabesh noted adding that the Farabi Foundation and the related institutes are fully prepared to join forces to support valuable films for children and youth.
Then, the representative of Isfahan General Directorate of Welfare handed the award of Hope Manifestation to Hamidreza Qotbi for making the That Night’s Train.
Qotbi said that the film has taken the environment to consideration, and luckily, the children starring in the film agreed that they could make a difference in protecting the environment.
Then head of Iran’s Cinema Organization said that at the present meeting, we are acknowledging those who contributed to the promotion of children’s film festival.
The speech was followed by awarding the cash prize and the diploma of appreciation to Babak Nabizadeh, director of The Ocean Beyond the Window.
In the interval of the award ceremony, some scenes of the nostalgic Iranian films and TV series for children, such as The Tales of Majid, Bashu, the Little Stranger, and Bag of Rice were reacted by teenager actors.
The representative of Tehran Municipality, in another part of the ceremony, awarded the prizes of popular campaign of traffic in Isfahan to Mostafa Nazarizade, director of Byciclist’s Hashtag, Mohammad Azadi, director of The Ocean Beyond the Window, and Morteza Hosseini, actor of The Tales of Majid and Absent Third Person.
The prizes included cash, diplomas of appreciation and bicycles. Then the soundtracks of some nostalgic children films and cartoons were played by a music group.
The prize of Scientific Association of Islamic Mysticism of Iran was awarded to Mahdi Jafari for making The 23.
The veteran actor Jahanbakhsh Soltani announced the name of the winners of the Islamic Propagation Office of Qom Seminary to Mahdi Jafari, and Amir Dasargar for No-Fly Zone in feature section, Javad Hakami, for his short film For Amir.
Mohammad-Ali Soltanzadeh, the producer of Captain Khorshid, then, awarded the prize of the Association of Children and Media to Morteza Assemani, director of Red and Blue, and Shiva Momtahen director of animation The Spinning Top.
Art Port Institute extended its prizes to Lida Fazli, producer of This Side, Other Side. The prize for the feature was awarded to Mahdi Jafari director of The 23.
Abbas Jalili-Yekta, director of the short film Marine Boy received the prized of Iran Short Film Association.
Children’s Right Convention National Department of Iran’s Ministry of Justice offered its prize to Hamidreza Qotbi, director of That Nigth’s Train, and Babak Nabizadeh, director of The Ocean Beyond the Window.
The ceremony was rounded up by the speech of Isfahan’s mayor. Nowruzi evaluated the festival as an effective way for improving the world of children and expressed hope that by holding such events, good moments and future are created for children.