Official Selection | Features
Official Selection | Shorts
Festival Poster
4th Edition
The 4th Persian Film Festival opened with the highly anticipated Australian premiere of Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s award-winning feature The President. The festival hosted eight national and international guests, including Alireza Amini and Bita Beigi from Iran, Saeed Sourati and Nora Niasari from Australia, and Alexandria Bombach from the USA. The festival guests engaged audiences in Q&A sessions after their screenings.
Poster of the 4th Persian Film Festival
Designed by Amin Palangi
Festival Guests
Mahyar Mandegar
Mahyar Mandegar was born 1996 in Tehran, Iran. He started his career by entering faculty of cinema & theater at art university of Tehran. After two years he chose editing field and participated as editor in short films such as: Barcelona (2017), Nausea (2018), Stairways (2018), Metamorphosis (2018), etc. He directed the announce of 14th Nahal Short Film Festival. He was also the director of 2nd and 3rd Jokal Painting Festival’s announces. His first short film “Blue sky, Clean earth” (2017) won best film under 15 minute and best cinematography from Image of the Year film festival (Iran). It also won best original score from Nahal Short Film Festival (Iran).
Ali Vaziri
Ali Vaziri is an independent director and editor and has been involved in numerous high end projects in Iran. He has been actively involved in film industry for over a decade now. Ali graduated from 'Farhang va Honar' university in 2012, majoring in directing and film making. After moving to Australia in 2013 he started collaborating with Persian Film Festival in Sydney every year. In 2016 he established his own company, Easy to Media, specialising in movie editing and directing as well as professional videography and photography.
Tickets on Sale
The Opening and Closing Night tickets are now on sale for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide. The festival line-up will be announced on 22nd of August.
Milad Alami
Milad Alami was born in Iran 1982, grew up in Sweden and now lives in Denmark. He graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 2011. His films have been selected for numerous film festivals, amongst other Director’s Fortnight in Cannes, New York Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand and Karlovy Vary. His latest short film MOMMY premiered in competition at Gothenborg International Film Festival in January 2015 and won the Danish Academy Award for Best Short Film 2016.
Farnoosh Samadi
Farnoosh Samadi was born in Iran and graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. She started her career as a filmmaker at the Iranian Youth Cinema Society and after that she made some video installations. She is the scriptwriter for the short films “More Than Two Hours” directed by Ali Asgari which was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes 2013, “The Baby” which was premiered in Short film competition at Venice Film Festival 2014 and some other short films. She is currently co-writing a feature film with Ali Asgari which is accepted at “Cinefondation Residence” of Cannes Film Festival. “The Silence” is her first short film, which had its world premiere in competition at Cannes Film Festival 2016.
Bahman Ark
Bahman Ark is a director and scriptwriter who was born in 1989 in Tabriz, Iran. Ark Brothers most notable work is directing "Animal" movie. In the 36th Fajr Film Festival, they won the Crystal Simorgh Award for Best Short Film. They have also directed the short film "Najis".
Pooya Badkoobeh
Pooya Badkoobeh was born into a theatrical Tehran family on January 5th 1983. His father was a well-known children’s TV director and producer, so Pooya spent much of his childhood on set. He graduated in graphics from the Tehran School of Art in 2000 and then graduated in theatrical studiesfrom the Azad University of Dramatic Art in 2005. Since 2003 he’s been working in TV advertising,making both commercial and cultural spots. Parallel to this, Pooya has also made 2 short films, both of which have won national and international awards. Dressage is his first feature film.
Panahi & Abbasi win at Cannes
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Jafar Panahi’s Three Faces at Cannes
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Everybody Knows at Cannes
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Calling for the 7th Edition
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Shalizeh Arefpour
Shalizeh Arefpour was born in Tehran in 1970 and studied at the Filmmaking Training Center. Since 1990 she has participated on 26 movies as a programmer, assistant director, scriptwriter and editor. Her 2014 debut short 'The Shadow of Moon' was followed by three documentaries. 'Heiran' is her directorial debut feature.
Special Event
Love Marriage in Kabul: Fundraiser
The festival hosted a special fundraiser screening of Amin Palangi’s award winning Love Marriage in Kabul and donated the proceeding to Mahboba’s Promise Charity.