cinema trust Rana Azadivar, an actress of Iranian cinema and a member of the selection committee of the 43rd Fajr Film Festival, believes that her presence as the only actor member of the selection committee is considered a heavy and important responsibility.
According to the public relations of the Fajr Film Festival, Azadivar continued in an interview with “Fajrnameh” of the festival publication: Cinema is a profession that I am very interested in and I have been following it for more than 20 years. However, I was never in this situation and I was always present as an actor in the Fajr Festival. Sometimes I felt disappointed because some works were removed or ignored. For this reason, today, when I am in the position of selection, I feel a very heavy responsibility.
Referring to the importance of the role of the festival’s secretary, the actor of “About Eli…” says: The presence of Mr. Manouchehr Shahsawari, who is one of the people of the country’s cinema, made me accept the participation in the selection board. They have always supported the artists of this field and I thought to myself that the smallest thing I can do as a member of the Iranian cinema family is to accept to be on the selection board. I am sure that many good things will happen in this year’s festival despite the presence of Mr. Shaheswari. Of course, this largely depends on the films that are applying for participation in the festival and we will watch them.
Referring to the review process of the films applying for participation in the festival, this actor mentioned: The thing that stands out for me so far is the existence of diversity in the films, and this topic is very attractive to me. Maybe in the past years, we saw less diversity in genre and topic, but this year this topic has a special appearance.
He says about his desire to work with first-time filmmakers: For me, working with first-time filmmakers is a challenging and, at the same time, fascinating issue. So far, we have watched some works of the first filmmakers, which were good works. It seems that a favorable environment should be provided so that younger cinematographers can make their favorite films and I hope that the acts of taste treatment towards cinematographers will be removed. My track record shows that I have collaborated with many first-time filmmakers, and if a good and acceptable script is presented by a first-time film director who has presented acceptable works in short cinema, I will proudly accept to participate in it.
Rana Azadivar has an opinion about the necessity of the cinema people to manage the festival: Fajr Film Festival belongs to the cinematographers of the country and it is definitely the desire of the artists of this field to have it managed by the cinema people. The presence of people belonging to the cinema body makes better things happen and gives the feeling that the words of the artists are heard and at least the cinematographers expect this to happen.
He continues: All people with any kind of thinking should be able to make their own film. We should not place restrictions on people who are engaged in artistic activities, because this issue does not bring good consequences and its result can be seen in today’s Iranian cinema compared to previous years. The fact is that cinema has suffered a kind of stagnation and regression compared to the previous years. I hope my presence in the selection committee of the 42nd festival will be useful. Cinema is our favorite profession as cinematographers and we have worked hard for it. So, we have to take care of it.