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
Pegah Ahangarani
Pegah Ahangarani (born 1984) is an Iranian actress, film director and musician. She has directed 7 documentaries and acted in more than 40 feature films. Her movies (where she starred or directed) have been shown in many festivals, including Berlinale, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival. She has received many prizes in different festivals: Best Actress in Cairo Film Festival; Best Actress in Locarno Film Festival; Best Director for Ghazaleh Alizadeh in Cinema Verité International Film Festival; Best Director in Isfahan International Film Festival for Tamashakhaneh; Best Creativity for Dehnamakiha in Khane Cinema Film Festival.
Ali Abbasi
Ali Abbasi was born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for Border (2018), Holy Spider (2022) and Shelley (2016).
Sepideh Farsi
Born in Tehran, Iran, Sepideh Farsi moved to Paris to study mathematics. After several years of photography, she began making short films and documentaries, amongst which HARAT and TEHRAN WITHOUT PERMISSION, which both premiered in Locarno. Her first two features DREAMS OF DUST and THE GAZE premiered in Rotterdam. She then directed THE HOUSE UNDER THE WATER, followed by CLOUDY GREECE and has just finished a new feature film: RED ROSE.
Arsalan Amiri
Born on April 22, 1975 in Kurdistan, Iran. Amiri holds a B.A. in Film Directing from Art University of Tehran and Master’s in Dramatic Literature from University of Tehran. In 2003, He began to write scripts, edit, and make documentaries. His first co-written feature script, Nahid (2015), directed by Ida Panahandeh, won the Promising Future Prize in Un Certain Regard at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. He continued his collaboration with Panahandeh in her last three films: Israfil (2017), The Nikaidos' Fall (2018- Japan & Hong Kong), and TiTi (2020) as co-writer, editor, and producer. He made his first feature film, Zalava in 2021 in Kurdistan of Iran.
Sohrab Shahid Saless
Sohrab Shaheed Salles or Sohrab Shahid-Saless was an Iranian film director and screenwriter and one of the most celebrated figures in Iranian cinema in the 20th century. After 1976 he worked in the cinema of Germany and was an important component of the film diaspora working in the German industry.
SYD | Palace Norton Street
99 Norton St, Leichhardt
MEL | Palace Como
Level 1, Toorak Rd & Chapel St, South Yarra
BNE | Palace James St
39 James St, Fortitude Valley
ADL | Palace Nova Eastend
3 Cinema Pl, Adelaide
Sarah Tabibzadeh
Sarah Tabibzadeh is known for Tchisti (2020), Lady with Flower-Hair (2012) and Kiss Me (2021).
Sahar Sotoodeh
Sahar Sotoodeh (born 1989) is an Iranian actress and filmmaker. She received her bachelor degree from the Art University of Tehran in music. After finishing university, she started learning acting and screenwriting while she was participating in many theatres and shows as an actress and assistant director. In 2014 she appeared in front of the camera for the first time in a short film called “Baby”, which was candidated for the Venice Film Festival and also won the award for the best actress from the Cervignano Film Festival. Ever since, she continued working as an actress, assistant director and script supervisor for various plays. Moreover, due to her experiences in both fields of music and theatre, she has actively been involved as an assistant director, actress and songwriter in the musical works of “Oliver Twist” and “Les Miserables”. Furthermore, she made her first short film in 2018 called "Hedieh", which has been nominated for various festivals around the world.
Ali Paknia
Ali Paknia was born in 1993 in Iran. He studied directing and acting at 8mm Film School.
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.