Iran to buy world’s top 3D films for public screening

TEHRAN,March 7(MNA) --The Farabi Cinematic Foundation planned to acquire copyrights of some of the best 3D movies for screening in Tehran’s theaters in the near future. The foundation planned to screen 3D movies in continuation of a program of screening foreign films in theaters, Deputy Director of the foundation Hassan Najjarian stated. The Farabi Cinematic Foundation has recently screened “The Kid with a Bike” by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne in three of Tehran’s theaters, namely Farhang Cinema, Shahre Ghesseh and Mellat. The foundation, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, announced that this is a part of its program for screening foreign films in Tehran’s theaters. “The Farabi Foundation aims to introduce people to modern technologies and up-to-date films by purchasing their copyrights for screening,” he said. He said that the screening of foreign films in Tehran’s cinemas was limited due to a lack of theaters and times but if the films were welcomed by the audiences, additional theaters and time would be allocated to screening the 3D movies. “We are not satisfied with low quality foreign films or 3D movies. High quality in terms of dubbing and techniques are other factors we consider for screening films,” he said. He said that he cannot disclose the exact date for screening of 3D movies since they are negotiating for purchasing copyrights for public screening. The Eyvan-e Shams hall in Tehran screened five 3D movies during 30th Fajr International Film Festival in February 2012. The films were Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”, Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D”, Alister Grierson’s “Sanctum”, Bibo Bergeron’s “A Monster in Paris” and Mike Disa’s “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”. However, Najjarian said that copyrights for screening were purchased exclusively for the festival and cannot be used for public screening. He expressed his hope that people welcome the films at theaters. However, he said that “it would take time”.