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
Siddiq Barmak
Siddiq Barmak (Born September 7, 1962) in Panjshir, Afghanistan, is a film director and producer. He received an M.A degree in cinema direction from the Moscow Film Institute (VGIK) in 1987. He has written a few screenplays and has made a few short films. His first feature film OSAMA, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. There is a stylistic echo in OSAMA featured in Afghan films by the Iranian Makhmalbaf dynasty; father Mohsen's Kandahar, and daughter Samira Makhmalbaf's At Five in the Afternoon, the latter also shot in post-Taliban Kabul. Barmak directed OSAMA with significant funding and assistance from the elder Makhmalbaf. The Iranian director invested thousands of dollars in the film, lending Barmak his Arriflex camera and encouraging him to send the movie to international festivals, which eventually generated further funding from Japanese and Irish producers. Barmak received "UNESCO’s Fellini Silver Medal" for his drama, OSAMA, in 2003.
Vahid Jafari
Vahid Jafari was born in 1991 in Rasht. He has a graphic associate degree from Lahijan university. He has a bachelor of graphic design degree from Anzali Elmi Karbordi university . He passed the online course of EXPLORE ANIMATION from London NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL. He began his professional work in the field of character design ,illustraion in 2003. He has takepart in many festivals and designed characters and mascots for commercial brands. He began to work in the field of animation with 2D technic in 2005. After several experience he tend to stop motion technic. He has been active in the field of making puppets and animation since the group was formed in 2009.
Pouria Pishvaei
Pouria Pishvaei is known for Shortcut (2015), Birthday Night (2017) and Tasouki (2018).
Parisa Aminolahi
Parisa Aminolahi (Tehran 1978) based in the Netherlands since 2008, is a freelance filmmaker, photographer and painter. She studied theatre stage design (BA) and animation (MA) at University of Art in Tehran and documentary filmmaking (MA) at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work covers a spectrum of themes such as displacement, exile, homeland, family and childhood memories, utilising childhood and old family photographs, self-portraits and her own family members as her subjects. Her mediums range from photography, documentary filmmaking, animation, painting and mixed media.
Sam Kalantari
Many years of extensive experience in different genres in film making and cinema, is a simplified explanation of the characteristics of Sam Kalantari’s resume. In addition to making 15 documentaries and short movies, he also has the experience of directing and making advertisements for international companies to his credit. Among his achievements and pride are winning of the Crystal Phoenix «Simorgh-e-Boloorin - a prestigious award presented at the Tehran Fajr Film Festival» for the best documentary, in the Thirty eighth Fajr Film Festival. He also won the Special Judges award for «Best Director at the International Film Festival» and was awarded the «Best Director of Iranian Cinema award». These are some of Sam's success stories and achievements. He was also in the panel of judges international «Cinema Haghighat» film festivals and Fajr Festival, Sam has Membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is a professional photographer and holds international exhibitions. And last but certainly not least, he was the director of the ninth independent Iranian documentary film festival.
Karim Lakzadeh
Born in 1986- Shiraz, Iran, after graduating from Theater School in 2004 he studied in the major of TV Directing. First he focused on story writing for the films and theater and his story; I AM SPELLED won the prize in and reciting the play Fortress, won the best Experimental Theater direction award. Then he made 6 shorts, which were successful in local festivals and award in the different festivals (details are in the filmography section), before making his first feature Foroud, as his graduation film.
Shahrzad Dadgar
Shahrzad Dadgar is an award-winning director/writer/photographer. She has written and directed two short films, 500 Ounces of Gold and Highlight, which have been honored with multiple awards at worldwide festivals.
Moein Karimoddini
Mohammad Moein Karimoddini is known for Vaghti Abrha Payin Miayand (2012) and Tinar (2009).
Kaveh Mazaheri
Born 1981 in Tehran, Iran. An interest in cinema led Mazaheri to begin writing film criticism for Iranian magazines after graduating from college in 2004. His first short film, Tweezers (2007). To date, he has made four independent short films and more than twenty short and long documentaries. He is the editor and author of a great many projects aside from his own. His most characteristic filmsinclude “A REPORT ABOUT MINA”(Documentary, 2015) and “RETOUCH”(Short fiction, 2017). “RETOUCH” won “Best Short Fiction Film” from Tribeca, Krakow, Palm Springs, Stockholm, Tirana, Traverse City, Zubroffka , Ojai, Fajr, IBAFF, Dublin, Short Waves, Mediawave, Cellu l’art, Sorsi Corti Film Festivals.
Ida Panahandeh
Ida Panahandeh was born in Tehran, Iran on September 8th, 1979. She obtained a degree in Film Photography in 2002 and a master’s in Film Direction in 2005, both from the Arts University of Tehran, where she began her film career with several short films. She has, throughout her work, focused on women's rights, as with her first feature ' Nahid', a film which won her worldwide acclaim. 'Nahid' was selected for the 'Un Certain Regard' section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the special prize of ' Prix de l'Avenir'.
Shahram Shah Hosseini
Shahram Shah hosseini was born on 1973 in Tehran. He started his career by working as assistant director for well known Iranian directors such as Bahram Beizaei, and Bahman Ghobadi. He has made several short films which won some awards in Iran. Afterwards he directed 3 feature films which were among best-selling films of the year in Iran. The girl’s house is his 4th feature film which is a different film in compare with his previous films. The arose lots of arguments in Iran about it’s theatrical release.
Roozbeh Misaghi
Roozbeh Misaghi was born in Tehran, Iran, where he studied his bachelor’s degree in Sociology, worked as an independent filmmaker in commercials, short films, and music videos. His passion for filmmaking led him to move to London, United Kingdom, where he studied his Master’s degree in film directing and worked on several short films and commercials as the producer, director and writer.
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.