Talking to Mehr News Agency, Raed Faridzadeh said that for the first time this year, the children festival has a video library featuring a collection of recent films on children and adolescents as well as top works in the past 40 years to screen for festival buyers, directors, and planners.
"This is a step towards the festival's focus on the child and adolescent cinema market, and for this reason, alongside a video library of regional buyers whose children and adolescent cinema is important to them, there is also a focus on countries in the region that share cultural interests with Iran. Of course, a number of European and Asian countries have been invited to watch the films this year, as well as negotiate with broadcasters and select works from the video library," he added.
Faridzadeh also commented on the co-production section of the festival, adding that "Along with this section, with the help of my colleagues, we designed a co-production panel focused on child and adolescent cinema, inviting guests from Serbia, Pakistan, Turkey, Germany, South Korea and Russia. Iranian filmmakers, directors and actors involved in co-production have also been invited to hold talks on the matter.”
He added several top international film critics from South Korea, Germany, Armenia, Berlin film festivals, as well as Cannes, would take part in this section and the works by Abbas Kiarostami and Majid Majidi will be reviewed by an Armenian cinema expert.
"We wanted to take into account the diversity of films and genres. This year has been a very diverse year for the festival. Several representatives from 42 countries are presenting their works and 28 films from Asia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, and even Singapore will be displayed,” he said.
Presided by Alireza Tabesh, the 32nd International Film Festival for Children and Youth is slated to be held in Province of Isfahan on Aug 19-26, 2019 in the feature, short story, web series, long animation, short animation sections.
MS/4690128/PR