Iranian Cinema Dinner Banquet

The 13th Iranian Cinema Celebration was canceled. Although Farhad Towhidi (screenwriter and deputy director of House of Cinema) had been assigned as secretary of the celebration since many months ago and, as usual, the best works of the Iranian cinema were to be chosen in various fields, developments following presidential election caused directorate of House of Cinema to announce that it was not ready to mark the occasion. Every year, a celebration is held on September 12, which is the national Cinema Day in Iran, in which judges give their final views on the last year’s movies and selected participants receive special statue of the celebration. The celebration has turned into the main rival for Fajr International Film Festival in recent years. The secretary of the annual celebration was usually chosen out of prominent figures and, thus far, people like Parviz Parastui, Abolhassan Davoudi, Yadollah Samadi, Manouchehr Shahsavari, Majid Majidi and Reza Mirkarimi have been secretaries of various editions of the celebration. In early spring this year, Farhad Towhidi was introduced as secretary of the celebration and a jury was supposed to start screening films. However, post-election incidents delayed that process. It was later announced that there would be no celebration this year and the occasion would be marked through a limited dinner banquet. The banquet was attended by various cinema guilds as well as journalists who commemorated Cinema Day.