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
Kazem Mollaie
Kazem Mollaie started filmmaking with a short film named "FROM GAME TO..." (1999). Mollaie holds a B.A. in Cinema Directing from "Soore University of Tehran" in 2005. He has been the member of several organizations such as "Iranian Young Cinema Society" (IYCS), the "Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds" (Khaneh Cinema) and member of Board of Directors of "Iranian Short Film Association" (ISFA).
Salem Salavati
Born in Kurdistan Iran in 1975. Salavati has directed several short films, documentaries and feature films. He has received more than fifty national and international awards for his work as both director, scriptwriter and photographer.
Anastasija Bräuniger
Anastasija Harrowna Bräuniger was born in 1988 in Berlin. She grew up in Moscow, South England and Germany. She studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock and during her studies produced own plays and performances. 2013 Anastasija founded the Berlin based artist’s group “flying pig corporation”, which works with actors, musicians and authors. In 2014 she received the Proskenion Nachwuchsförderpreis for performing arts. After working two years intensively as a theatre actress and playing major roles, she decided to try out for the renowned Ernst Busch School Berlin to study directing. She was accepted and has begun her studies in autumn 2016. Anastasija continues to work on own performances and own exhibitions of her art work and photography. She is also a member of the Young Berlin Council in the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin.
Pouran Derakshandeh
Pouran Derakhshandeh was born in 1951 in Iran. She is a director and producer, known for Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanand (2013), Under the Smoky Roof (2017) and A Candle in the Wind (2004).
Narges Abyar
Narges Abyar graduated in Persian literature; She started writing books in 1997. Up to the present, she has written more than thirty story and fiction books for children, young adults and adults. She was selected as an Oscar Academy member in 2020. Her famous novels are namely: . Mountain on the Shoulder of the Tree . A Boy with insatiable worms on his body . Third Eye . The Legend of A Skinny Spring . It Was Neither a Day Nor a Night . The Poems of a Sky-clad Fish . Story of Two Fives . The Agitated Existence of a Prosperous Idol She has written and directed five drama films. Her recent film is called, Pinto. She had also made several short and feature-length documentaries since 2005. Her first experience was a fiction film called "The Kind Dead-End". She pursued her directing career further with seven features and documentaries and four cinema films, as listed below: . The Kind Dead-End (fiction 2006) . The story of a believable story (fiction 2007) . One day after the tenth day (documentary 2007)
Oktay Baraheni
Oktay Baraheni (born 1974) is an Iranian Film director and writer . He is a graduate of the Fine Arts York University Toronto, Canada with a degree in Cinema, His successful career includes several feature films, several short films and a documentary Khatab Be Parvaneha, which is a well-known Iranian poet and writer in relation to his father, Reza Baraheni, As well as him first feature film was The Pole Khaab, which was screened in the new film section of the Fajr Film Festival in 2015 And in 2016, its public release began, He also has a background in journalism.
Navid Mahmoudi
Navid Mahmoudi was born in Parvan, Afghanistan on September 23, 1980. He and his family moved to Iran when he was 6 years old. From a very early age he has been interested in films and cinema, developing a veritable passion for the 7th art. Having started his professional career as an assistant director he went on to direct his own short films whilst also producing other works. He has produced of over 10 TV Movies. In 2014 he produced his first feature, "A few Cubic Meters of Love", which was warmly received by both international critics and the public. In 2016 he directed his first feature "Parting", before going on to produce "Rona, Azim's Mother" in 2018. All three films were selected as Afghanistan's official Oscar entries.
Mohsen Nabavi
Mohsen Nabavi is an actor, known for Under Eyelid (2015), Lifeline (2011) and Paper Boats (2010).
Iranian filmmakers at Cannes
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Rosemary Blight
Rosemary Blight is one of the founding partners of Goalpost Pictures Australia a leading independent producer of Feature Film and TV drama. Film credits include HOLDING THE MAN, directed by Neil Armfield, FELONY, directed by Matthew Saville and written by Joel Edgerton and the box office hit THE SAPPHIRES, directed by Wayne Blair which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. They are in post production on the feature film STEM with Blumhouse Productions, directed by Leigh Whannell. Recent television credits include the acclaimed CLEVERMAN produced with ABC TV Australia & SundanceTV (US) & FIGHTING SEASON for Foxtel.
Ben Ferris
Ben Ferris is one of the founders of Sydney Film School, where he is currently the Director and a writing/directing teacher. Ferris, a film writer/director, has screened films and won numerous awards in Paris, New York, Croatia, Italy, Tokyo, Singapore and Amsterdam, as well as having theatrical releases of his works in Tokyo, Croatia, and Australia. His short film ‘The Kitchen’ (2003) won the Grand Prix at the Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Festival in Tokyo in 2005, and his short film ‘Ascension’ (2004) won the Grand Prix at the 4th One Take Film Festival in Croatia in 2004. His debut feature film ‘Penelope’, an Australian–Croatian co-production, screened in National Competition at the 56th Pula Film Festival in Croatia in 2009, and won a Van Gogh Award for Best Fantasy Film at the Amsterdam Film Festival in 2010. In 2016 he completed his second feature film ‘57 Lawson’ which captures daily life within a social housing building in Redfern, under the shadow of impending development. The film is currently on the international festival circuit, and has been critically well received. In 2015, Ferris was the curator of the Sydney Cinémathèque. His writings on cinema have been published worldwide in both French and English.
Jen Peedom
Jen Peedom is a BAFTA nominated director, known for her gripping, intimate portraits of people in extreme circumstances. Her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries SOLO, SHERPA and most recently MOUNTAIN, a collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. SHERPA, was critically acclaimed on the international festival circuit, including Telluride, Toronto and London Film festivals, winning multiple awards including the Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, the Australian Film Critics Circle Award, the Australian Directors Guild Award, several audience awards and a BAFTA nomination in 2016. The film became the third highest grossing Australian documentary in history. Her most recent film, MOUNTAIN is currently touring with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and will have its international premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival. Madman will release the film in September 2017. In 2010, Jen was the inaugural recipient of the David & Joan Williams Documentary Fellowship which recognizes and rewards creative ambition, intellectual rigour and innovation in documentary cinema.
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.