Asgarpour: Fajr Int’l Film Festival not in-person event
The director of the 38th Fajr International Film Festival (Fiff) said that this year’s edition would have no foreign in-person guests due to the pandemic, despite a host of requests.
Mehdi Asgarpour made the remarks on the sidelines of the festival’s press conference on Sunday, which was held online.
He added that the coronavirus pandemic has caused special conditions, making great changes in the way film festivals are held, as some were canceled and some others were held online, IRNA wrote.
This major film festival was scheduled to be held in April 2020, however, amid growing concerns over the coronavirus during March 2020, the organizers postponed it to a later time in June, which was also canceled, Asgarpour said.
Referring to Cannes’ use of the Cinando platform to hold
festivals, he added that Fiff entered a partnership with the
platform after it solved some security issues.
A total number of 60 packages and 400 user capacities have been reserved in the Cinando platform to hold some parts of the festival, in which only selected people can participate, he explained.
Asgarpour also said that workshops would be held online, as some trainers wouldn’t have the opportunity to travel to Iran due to the pandemic.
He addressed critics claiming that organizing a film festival under conditions in which the country has been hit by both economic hardship and the coronavirus spread seems to be of no sense, saying that festivals are a part of the film industry ecosystem; the whole system would be hurt if festivals were totally abandoned.
The 38th edition of Fiff is due to be held from May 26 to June 2.