Noor Iranian Film Festival
The Noor Iranian Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Los Angeles, California, founded by cultural producer Siamak Ghahremani and co-founder Anthony Azizi in 2007. The festival's namesake comes from the word Nur, also spelled Noor, meaning to shed light or "noor," on Iranian culture and heritage through Iranian cinema.[1] A non-profit, non-religious, and non-political organization, the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) was created to shed light, or ‘noor,’ on Persian culture, helping to express the beauty of a culture that is commonly misperceived due to its portrayal in the media.[2] Additional to the main annual festival in Los Angeles, a tour of the program has made several return trips to cities such as Daytona Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.[3][4]
The Los Angeles festival has been held at such venues as the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA Campus, Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills and Magnin Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center. It has taken place every year since 2007, with the exception of 2010, where due to Iran's political uprising in 2010, and out of respect for the people in Iran, the festival decided to postpone its 4th festival to 2011. The postponement was also due to a lack of sponsorship and seed money for the festival.[5]
Programming
The program blocks have included feature films, documentaries, short films and animated films, all of which were selected to shed light on Iranian culture and heritage. Their submission guidelines for filmmakers state: "NIFF accepts films from Iranian filmmakers, films made about Iran or Iranians, and/or films that include Iranians as part of the cast or crew."[6]
Judges
1st Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
2nd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
3rd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
4th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
5th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
- Navid Negahban, Homa Sarshar, Behrouz Vossoughi, Tony Plana, Kristoff St. John
6th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
- Marshall Manesh, Dennis Haysbert, Faraj Heidari
7th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
8th Annual Noor Film Festival judges
Awards
Additional to judged awards for films screened at the festival, the event selects honorary recipients with a career achievement award. In 2013 the festival announced that the Achievement Award would be renamed the Reza Badiyi Achievement Award, in honor of the director/producer Reza Badiyi, recipient of the festival's first Achievement Award in 2009.[7]
Achievement Awards
| Year | Recipient | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Reza Badiyi | Producer, director |
| 2011 | Bob Yari | Producer |
| 2013 | Shohreh Aghdashloo | Actress |
| 2014 | Shaun Toub | Actor |
2007
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Theme Award | Ryan Haidarian | Aref |
| Audience Favorite | Mohammad Shirvani | President Mir Qanbar |
| Best Comedy | Kaveh Sejadhosseini | Cold City |
| Best Animation | Amir Mehran | The Lost Waves |
| Best Story | Bahman Dadfar | Flying Next to the Red Chair |
| Best Drama | Sasan Saleimani | It Takes Time As Smoking A Cig |
| Best Documentary | Mehdi Rahmani | The Autumn Boys |
| Best Director | Shahram Mokri | The Dragonfly Storm (short) |
2008
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Theme Award | Armin Palangi | Hidden Generation |
| Audience Favorite | Aryana Farshad | Mystic Iran |
| Best Animation | Saeid Ghahari | Rebirth of Rostam |
| Best Story | Jahangir Golestan | Bam 6.6 |
| Best Documentary | Jahangir Golestan | Bam 6.6 |
| Best Director | Jahangir Golestan | Bam 6.6 |
2009
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Feature Film | Sabine El Gemayel | Niloofar |
| Audience Favorite | Faramarz Rahber | Donkey in Lahore |
| Best Documentary | Faramarz Rahber | Donkey in Lahore |
| Best Director | Faramarz Rahber | Donkey in Lahore |
| Best Story | Mohammad Nourizad | Flags of Kaveh's Castle |
| Best Actor | Abazar Noorizad | Flags of Kaveh's Castle |
| Best Actress | Mobina Aynehdar | Niloofar |
| Best Short Film | Ladan Yalzadeh | The Florist |
2011
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Audience Favorite | Maryam Keshavarz | Circumstance |
| Best Director | Maryam Keshavarz | Circumstance |
| Best Actress | Nikohl Boosheri | Circumstance |
| Best Actor | Navid Negahban | Liberation (Short) |
| Best Story | Jon Goldman | Diplomacy |
| Best Short Film | Jon Goldman | Diplomacy |
| Best Documentary | Joe Ayella | American Coup |
| Best Animation | Ameneh Eslami | Little Tale of Us |
2012
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Audience Favorite | Morteza Rezvani | The Iran I Remember |
| Best Feature Film | Dave Moutray/Shahaub Roudbari | Losing Her |
| Best Feature Film Director | Esmaeel Mihandoust | A Very Close Encounter |
| Best Documentary | Tanaz Eshaghian | Be Like Others |
| Best Documentary Director | Beate Petersen | Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives |
| Best Story | Ala Mohensi | My City Pizza |
| Best Short Film | Ana Lily Amirpour | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night |
| Best Short Film Director | Ana Lily Amirpour | Pashmaloo |
2013
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Audience Favorite | Peyman Moaadi | Snow on Pines |
| Best Feature Film | Youssef Delara/Michael D. Olmos | Filly Brown |
| Best Feature Film Director | Marjane Satrapi/Vincent Paronnaud | Chicken with Plums |
| Best Documentary | Aref Mohammadi | A Survivor from Magadan |
| Best Documentary Director | Nahid Persson Sarvestani | My Stolen Revolution |
| Best Story | Aref Mohammadi | A Survivor from Magadan |
| Best Short Film | Neysan Sobhani | Dimensions |
| Best Short Film Director | Parish Rahbar | Fade |
| Best Animation | Mo Davoudian | Pepe and Lucas |
| Best Animation Director | Mo Davoudian | Pepe and Lucas |
2014
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best short film | Ali Asgari | More Than Two Hours |
| Best Short film Director | Ethan Rains | Still Here |
| Best Animation | Behrouz Bagheri | The Hard Dream |
| Best Documentary | Iran's Unwanted Sons and daughters | Out of Rain |
| Best Documentary Director | Ayat Najafi | No Land's Song |
| Best Feature film | Mohammadreza Vatandoust | When The Lemons Turned Yellow |
| Best Film Director | Desiree Akhavan | Appropriate Behavior |
| Best Story or Idea | Nima Shayeghi | Boys With Broken Ears |
| Audience Favorite | K-von Moezzi | Nowruz: Lost & found |
2016
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Feature Film | Salem Salavati | The Last Winter |
| Best Short Film | Ali Asghari | The Baby |
| Best Documentary | Shahriar Siami Shal | Out Of Focus |
| Best Animation | Maryam Farahzadi | The Role Of Each Fret |
| Best Short Documentary | Hilda Hashempour | I.D. |
References
- Noor Film Festival. "NIFF Mission". Noor Film Festival. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
- G, Vida (2014-11-03). "Noor Iranian Film Festival". The Experience Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
- de Yampert, Rick. "Noor film festival sheds light on Iran". News-Journal Online. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- "PAAIA Takes the Noor Iranian Film Festival on Tour". PAAIA. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- "4th Annual Noor Film Festival Announces Award Winners: "Circumstance" Sweeps Three Categories". The Burgett Group. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- "Filmmakers - Rules & Guidelines for Submission". Noor Iranian Film Festival. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
- "6th Annual Noor Iranian Film Festival Announces Award Winners". Payvand News. Retrieved 11 April 2014.