16th Fajr International Film Festival

The 16th Fajr International Film Festival (Persian: شانزدهمین جشنواره بین‌المللی فیلم فجر‎) held 1–11 February 1998 in Tehran, Iran.

16th Fajr International Film Festival
Official poster
Opening filmThe Glass Agency
LocationTehran, Iran
Founded1983
AwardsCrystal Simorgh
Editor-in-chiefSeifollah Dad
Festival date1–11 February 1998
LanguagePersian, English

The Glass Agency (Ebrahim Hatamikia, 1998) was the festival's best film in "Competition of Iranian Cinema" and The Promise (Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1996) —a Belgian film— was the festival's best film in "Competition of International Cinema".

The Glass Agency won a record-tying nine awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Selection committee

Majid Nadiri, festival's public relations officer, was announced the selection committee members on 3 January as below:[1]

Juries
Competition of Iranian Cinema
Competition of International Cinema[2]

Competition of Iranian Cinema
Closing ceremony of the
16th Fajr International Film Festival
Date11 February 1998
SiteVahdat Hall
Highlights
Best FilmThe Glass Agency
Most awardsThe Glass Agency (8)
Most nominationsThe Glass Agency (13)[lower-alpha 1]

Awards and nominations of the Competition of Iranian Cinema sections are below:[3]

Audience Choice
Competition
  • The Glass Agency  – Varahonar and Farabi Cinema Foundation, producers
    • The Tree of Life  – Mohammadreza Sarhangi and IRIB TV2, producers[lower-alpha 2]
    • The Pear Tree  – Dariush Mehrjui, Faramarz Farazmand and Farabi Cinema Foundation, producers
    • The May Lady  – Alireza Raisian and Jahangir Kosari, producers
    • Birth of A Butterfly  – SimaFilm, producer
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
  • The Glass Agency  – Hayedeh Safiyari
    • The Pear Tree  – Mostafa Kherghepoush
    • Birth of A Butterfly  – Hassan Hassandoust
    • Takhti: The World Champion  – Hassan Hassandoust
    • The Sorcerer  – Mehrzad Minooei and Mohammadreza Muini
Best Score
Best Sound Mixing
Best Sound Recording
  • The Tree of Life  – Abbas Rastgarpour
    • Mercedes  – Eshagh Khanzadi
    • A Mother's Love  – Yadollah Najafi
Best Costume Design
  • The May Lady  – Amir Esbati
    • The Glass Agency  – Hamidreza Charakchian
    • The Tree of Life  – Soheila Hashemi
Best Makeup
Best Special Effects
  • The Love Squadron  – Saeed Hajimiri
Non-nomination Crystal Simorgh
Films with multiple nominations and awards

The following 10 films received multiple nominations:

Nominations Film
13[lower-alpha 1] The Glass Agency
8 The Tree of Life
7 Birth of A Butterfly
The May Lady
3 Mercedes
The Sorcerer
The Pear Tree
2 Psycho
The Cloud and the Rising Sun
Takhti: The World Champion

The following 3 films received multiple awards:

Awards Film
8 The Glass Agency
2 The Tree of Life
Birth of A Butterfly

Competition of International Cinema
Crystal Simorgh for Best Film
Crystal Simorgh for Best Director
Crystal Simorgh for Best Performance
Crystal Simorgh for Best Screenplay
Non-nomination Crystal Simorgh
Crystal Simorgh of Special Jury Prize
  • The May Lady  – Alireza Raisian and Jahangir Kosari, producers (Iran)
Additional Honorary Diploma

Non-competitive sections

The festival's other sidebar sections included tributes to Anthony Quinn and Ezzatolah Entezami, retrospectives of the works of three directors —Fred Zinnemann, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Ebrahim Hatamikia— , screening of the selected works for which Ennio Morricone had composed the music, "Festival of Festivals", and special screenings.[2]

Facing Mirrors

Retrospective of the Fred Zinnemann's career highlights:[4]

Retrospective of the Krzysztof Kieślowski's career highlights:[4]

The Green Narrative

Retrospective of the Ebrahim Hatamikia's career highlights:

For All Seasons

Tribute to the Anthony Quinn by screening of 14 films of his career.[5]

Tribute to the Ezzatolah Entezami by his career highlights:

Once Upon a Time

Tribute the Ennio Morricone by his career highlights:[4]

Ceremony information

63 films were requested to participate in the festival which 22 of them were approved for the "Competition of Iranian Cinema" section.[3] For the first time, FIFF had had opening ceremony that took place on 31 January 1998, at the City Theater in Tehran, Iran. Also for the first time, press conference for each film of the competitive sections was held at the Sahra Cinema.[6] elimination of the "Debut Films" section is another feature of festival's this edition.[7]

The "Competition of International Cinema" section in the festival was introduced for the second time. The first time was in 1990.[2] The section was added in order to FIFF accredit by FIAPF as a competitive international film festival.[7] Sheila Whitaker mentioned that this was the first time in the festival's history, held an international competition with an international jury, headed by Abbas Kiarostami.[8] At the closing ceremony, Kiarostami read out a statement in which he made it clear that the jury felt it impossible to give awards to foreign films that could only be screened in Iran with major cuts.[lower-alpha 3][8]

The "Iranian Film Market" (IFM) was established and took place during the festival. For example, National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), the central agency of Indian cinema, sent a delegation to the IFM and spent ₹83,864 (equivalent to ₹300,000 or US$4,300 in 2019) at this market.[9]

Critical response

16th FIFF marked by a powerful selection committee that did not allow many commercial films to enter into competition section. An Audience Award also introduced this year. All these made the FIFF regain the credibility it had in the past, i.e. before the politicians not familiar with cinema took charge.[10] However, impact of the former government's policies still remained.[11]

Footnotes

Notes
  1. The Glass Agency had had two nomination for Best Supporting Actor category.
  2. Honorary Diploma winner
  3. including all scenes of sexuality, violence and drug-taking

References
  1. سینماهای نمایش‌دهنده فیلم‌های جشنواره فجر [Fajr Festival's screening cinemas]. Hamshahri (in Persian) (1450). 4 January 1998.
  2. Rastin 1998, p. 54.
  3. برگزیدگان شانزدهمین جشنواره فیلم فجر [16th Fajr Film Festival winners]. Hamshahri (in Persian) (1481). 12 February 1998.
  4. یادمان زینه‌مان، کیسلوفسکی و موریکونه در جشنواره فجر [Tributes to Zinnemann, Kieślowski and Morricone at the Fajr Festival]. Hamshahri (in Persian) (1462). 18 January 1998.
  5. Eldredge, Richard L. (6 January 1998). "Engaging affair". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 2. ProQuest 413644202
  6. شانزدهمین جشنواره فیلم فجر، امروز در تهران گشایش می‌یابد [16th Fajr Film Festival opens today in Tehran]. Hamshahri (in Persian) (1470). 31 January 1998.
  7. Yaʿqubian 1998.
  8. Whitaker, Sheila (6 March 1998). "The veil of fears". The Guardian. p. 12. ProQuest 245223887
  9. Lok Sabha 1999, p. 93.
  10. Rastin 1998, pp. 53–54.
  11. Gozāresh 1998, p. 162.

Sources
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