Home video companies honored at intl. festival in Tehran

TEHRAN,June 19(MNA) -- Several major Iranian companies dealing with home video productions were honored at the opening ceremony of the 1st Tehran International Video Film Festival at the Eyvan-e Shams Hall on Sunday. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Director Ezzatollah Zarghami and a number of Iranian filmmakers and officials from the home video companies attended the ceremony. The Parsian Art Picture Institute won the Best Authoring Award in the Home Video Section for the film “Snow on a Hot Tin Roof” directed by Mohammad-Hadi Karimi. The institute also received the Best Distributer Award for “A Separation”, the Oscar-winning Iranian film directed by Asghar Farhadi who was also honored in absentia. Several other companies were also honored for their achievements in the home video industry. Zarghami said that IRIB plans to launch an English channel to broadcast Iranian movies and TV series in the near future. Producers Amir Hosseini-Sharifi, Hassan Eslami-Mehr and Mohammadreza Sharifi, directors Hojjat Qasemzadeh-Asl, Sadeq Parvin Ashtiani and Mehrdad Khoshbakht were honored during the event. Actors Hamidreza Pegah, Atila Pesyani and actress Behnaz Jafari and Parivash Nazarieh were also honorees of the event. The festival opened simultaneously in Rasht and on the Persian Gulf island of Abu Musa. Cosponsored by Iran’s Visual Media Institute and Iran Cinema Organization, the festival will run until June 22.