Tehran video festival to focus on quality of productions

TEHRAN,June 13(MNA) -- The Tehran International Video Film Festival, which will hold its first edition June 17 to 22, plans to boost the quality of the Iranian productions, the festival secretary said in a press conference on Tuesday. “Over 400 video films are produced annually in Iran but unfortunately, the quality of the products is not as high as their quantity,” Mohammadreza Abbasian added. The festival will also be held concurrently in Tehran, the Persian Gulf island of Abu Musa and the northern Iranian city Rasht. “Through participating in this festival, video productions will be registered on the directors’ personal accounts, thus they will become more rigorous about their works,” Abbasian stated. Video films have been produced in Iran for more than a decade and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and home video series are the main producers of this genre, he added. Today, most of the movies in world are broadcasted and shot in digital format and in this way, this festival is an important phenomenon, he added. “The convenience of video films in comparison with feature-length films attracts many young talented filmmakers,” he said. Over 700 films were submitted to the secretariat of the gala. Many of them are productions by renowned Iranian directors, he said. “However, we asked the jury members to judge the videos according to their quality, not based on the name of director. Hence, some works by renowned directors were not selected for the festival,” Abbasian said. “This is an alert for great filmmakers who considered video productions as sport or as a project for earning extra money,” he pointed. The submissions will be screened at Tehran’s Felestin Cinema and nine open-air theaters in parks. The organizers also plan to screen a number films in the German Video Films Panorama. This section has been arranged to familiarize Iranian cineastes and filmgoers with productions from the country. Abbasian said that nineteen videos from nine countries will be shown in the official competition. The lineup will be announced later. Director Farzad Motamen, producer Morteza Razzaq-Karimi and author Abbas Karimi are the members of the board of selection currently evaluating entries to the international section. During the conference, Abbasian said that non-cinematic organizations should not meddle with issues related to cinema and film festivals anymore. The festival is cosponsored by Iranian Visual Media Institute and Iran Cinema Organization.