45 cine works from nearly 40 countries to feature at Fajr Int’l Film Festival in Shiraz
The Fajr International Film Festival will open in the southwestern city of Shiraz on November 26 after a four-year break, bringing 45 films from 30-40 countries and nearly 200 industry guests to its new host city, festival secretary Rouhollah Hosseini said on Saturday.
Unveiling the poster of the 43rd edition at a ceremony beside Sa’adi’s mausoleum, Hosseini said the organizing team had “pushed hard” to run this year’s event to full international standards, stressing that quality and subject matter remained the festival’s central criteria, IRNA reported.
He called cinema the modern heir to Iran’s classical literary tradition, saying Shiraz had long “fed poetry and enriched cinema”.
Nine Iranian titles made the final cut, with the rest drawn from overseas submissions. Hosseini confirmed that delegations from 30 to 40 countries were due in Shiraz, adding that two Iranian women directors feature among the participants.
The festival will also convene specialized workshops led by foreign instructors, including sessions on poetic cinema, the thematic thread of this year’s program.
The event marks the first time the international strand of Fajr is held in Shiraz. Hosseini said provincial and national funding streams had been coordinated and pledged full transparency over support from Tehran.
The key question, he noted, was whether Shiraz could shoulder an undertaking of this scale. “Everyone must pull together so this festival stays in Shiraz,” he said, calling the inaugural year “crucial”.
Local officials argue the city is ready. Mehdi Ranjbar, head of the Culture and Islamic Guidance Department in Fars Province, pointed to new, state-of-the-art theaters and said no other Iranian city was better suited to host a festival whose main competition centers on poetic cinema.
The 43rd Fajr International Film Festival will run from November 26 to December 3, across venues in Shiraz.