The 8th Iranian Film Festival in Zurich: 13 feature films, 9 short films, 5 documentaries & 1 Masterclass

This 8th edition of IFFZ  starts next week on May 26th and will last until June 1st. The festival is proud to present 13 feature films, 5 documentaries and 9 short films. All films are made by renowned Iranian filmmakers and promising emerging film directors.

 

This year for the first time the festival will host one masterclass in cooperation with ZHdK and ETH. The high acclaimed woman filmmaker, Ida Panahandeh, will talk about the role of women in Iranian cinema. Ida Panahandeh will present her latest film, a fictional drama in competition called ‘Titi’.

Her first feature film ‘Nahid’, was screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was granted a special prize, the Prix de l’Avenir.

Prestigious jury members will preside over the feature films in competition for the Golden Cyrus Cylinder Trophy: Swiss independent film director Stefan Haupt, president of the feature film jury, Daniel Wiegand, assistant professor of film studies at the University of Zurich, Tamara Milosevic, German independent documentary filmmaker, Helene Aecherli, Swiss journalist, researcher, public speaker and moderator, and Sophia Rubischung, Swiss-Austrian film producer.

The festival will have a special screening of ‘Invisible Lines’ about a physically challenged artist in Iran at Karl der Grosse.

The opening film is ‘The Cow’ by Dariush Mehrju, a prominent Iranian filmmaker and holder of the Honorary Golden Cyrus Cylinder.

In this year’s new documentary section, the festival recommends ‘One Thousand Women’, directed by Mojgan Ilanlou, a female director. This powerful documentary is about women’s wrestling and how the  World Wrestling Federation had forced Iran to launch women’s wrestling.

Many important guests are expected such as two women directors, Ida Panahandeh (guest of honour) and Setareh Eskandari (woman director of ‘The Sun of That Moon’), the two film directors of ‘District Terminal’ Bardia Yadegari & Ehsan Mirhosseini, the director of ‘Une Histoire Provisoire’  Romed Wyder and its lead actress, Puneh Hajimohammadi.

After two years of reclusion into the online sphere, due to  Covid-19 the festival is back in the cinema. All films will be shown this year at the Arena in Sihlcity. 

For more information please click here.

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