The 5th Edition Of Cyrus International Film Festival
Introduction: The necessity of an Iranian film festival, showcasing the newly released and acclaimed movies from Iran and Iranian diaspora was always felt outside Iran’s borders. Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, and specially the new millennium in 2000, global audience became more familiar with Iranian Artistic Cinema, directors and themes. Directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Asghar Farhadi and Mohammad Rasoulof, have all impressed the spectators across the world with their unique aesthetic styles, covert and delicate depiction of social and existential issues, and deservedly winning awards in international film festival scenes. Presented by Kantium Development & Construction, the fifth annual festival held in November 2019. To address the need of an organized and inclusive film festival reflecting the diversity, talents and challenges emanating from Iranian national cinema, a group of film enthusiasts and volunteers kickstarted a new festival in the city of Toronto, originally presented as “Cine-Iran Film Festival” which renamed to “Cyrus International Film Festival” in 2019. The festival not only attracted Iranian-Canadians residing in Toronto, but also the Iranian cinema film personalities from Iran and also honorary guests including film critics, diasporic film stars and budding talents. Additionally, it has expanded its networks and outreach, and now partnered up with companies in British Colombia and other jurisdictions promoting Iranian culture and cinema. The festival venues, since its inception, have been TIFF Bell Lightbox and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO); the choices which, not only have proved the stature of the festival, but the intention of the festival organizers to present the best of Iranian cinema in the most appropriate format. Moreover, apart from regular screenings, the festival has been allowed an open exchange of ideas by accompanying films with lively and robust Q&A sessions, workshops and opening ceremony Galas to allow the participants to mingle and see how the art of cinema can be unifying, and a force to break the cultural and geographic borders. Read in Website
CineIran festival aims to expand perception of Iranian film
The Toronto International Film Festival prides itself on cultural diversity, screening movies from 83 countries in its 2016 edition alone. But a single festival, even one the size of TIFF, cannot show every international gem – which may be why Toronto plays host to dozens of other festivals that cater to niche audiences and communities. Hot Docs, Inside Out, Planet in Focus, Cinéfranco, ImagineNative, Reel Asian – and those are just the first ones that pop to mind. The CineIran Festival is one of the newest kids on the block. Screening 11 films over the course of three days this weekend at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Iran-focused fest was founded by Amir Ganjavie. Part of CineIran’s mandate is to expand Westerners’ perception of Iranian cinema. “We think Iranian cinema as a national cinema is bigger than what most festivals portray it to be,” says artistic director Amir Soltani, though he admits that “it’s not [those festivals’] fault. There are so many countries, so many national cinemas – you can’t have seven or eight films from each country every year.” Read in Website
