Hidetoshi Nishijima (actor from Japan), Fred Kelemen (director from Germany), Mariann Lewinsky (film historian and curator from Switzerland), and Erika Gregor (festival coordinator from Germany) are the other members of the jury.
Nine films will be vying for the Grand Prize of this year’s competition section, which is 1,000,000 yen in cash. The director of the winning film will also receive 500,000 yen as the Special Jury Prize (Kodak Vision Award).
“Joy of Madness” by Iranian teen filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf and “Turtles Can Fly” by Iranian director Bahman Qobadi received the Special Jury Prize in 2003 and 2004.
This year, Jalili’s “Full or Empty” and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Sex & Philosophy” are the two Iranian films scheduled to be presented in the Special Screening section.
Born in 1957 in Saveh, a city in the central part of Iran, Jalili began making films independently in the mid 1970s. In 1979, he worked with Iranian state TV (IRIB) to make some short films and documentaries.
In 1983, he directed his first feature film “Milad”. With his third film "Scabies" (1987), he confirmed his original style and his fourth film “Det Means Girl” (1994) won the Osella Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1995.
In 1998, “Dance of Dust” won the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival, although the Iranian culture ministry has banned screening of the film for the past seven years. He also won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo FILMeX 2001 for “Delbaran”.
Jalili tried his hand at documentary filmmaking in 2004 with “Sakuras Season”, which refers to Japan’s annual cherry blossom festival, which he directed for IRIB.
He has also made a short film in honor of Simon Field, the retiring director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Jalili is currently making his latest film “Hafez”, which features Japanese actress Kumiko Aso.
MMS/HG
End
MNA
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