(Photo by Abolfazl Nessaei)

Closing ceremony of the international section of the 31st Fajr Film Festival was held at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday night.

India Awards 2 Films

Two Iranian movies have garnered top awards at the 2013 Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) in India.
‘A Look Towards The Sky’ directed by Hadi Mohaqqeq and ‘Suddenly, Zinat’ by Navid Nikkhah Azad won Special Jury Mention of the festival.
Participated in Panorama section, the movies were praised by the jury members as major attractions of the festival, Press TV reported.
Three other Iranian films, including Reza Dormishian’s drama ‘Hatred’, Shahram Maslakhi’s ‘Burning Nest’ and ‘The Goat’ by Hamid Sadeqpour also represented the country’s cinema.
Some 217 short, animate and featured films from 90 countries were showcased at the year’s festival.
The fifth Jaipur International Film Festival was held in India’s historical pink city of Jaipur from January 27-31.

Fajr Poetry Festival Kicks Off

The Seventh Fajr International Poetry Festival kicked off in the Iranian southern island of Kharg located in the Persian Gulf.
A number of cultural officials and literary scholars attended the opening ceremony held in Kharg Island on February 5.
Over 2000 poets from Iran and 15 other countries have taken part in this year’s literary event to vie in six different sections, said the festival’s Secretary General Reza Hamidi.
Abbas Moshfeq Kashani, Mohammad Ali Mojahedi and Morteza Amiri are to serve at the jury panel of the newly assigned category titled ‘The Prophet of Islam’.
Mehdi Mohaqqeq, Mir Jalaleddin Kazazi and Hossein Razmjou were summoned to attend at the ‘Criticism and Research’ section.
The jury panel of the ‘Classic Poetry’ section is hosting Mohammad Jafar Yahaqqi, Mohammad Reza Turki, Bahaeddin Khorramshahi, Khosro Ehteshami and Mohammad Kazem Kazemi.
Naser Keshavarz, Mostafa Rahmandoust and Erfan Nazar Ahari were named to judge at the ‘Children and Young Adult’ section.
Iranian and International poets are also scheduled to recite their poems at the closing ceremony of the seventh edition of the festival.
The festival will run until February 26 on the island as well as the other cities of Tehran, Gorgan, Qazvin, Kerman, Hamedan, Ardebil, Mashhad and Shiraz.
Iran holds the international Fajr poetry, film, theater, visual arts and music festivals every year to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Fajr Int’l Winners Named

Closing ceremony of the international section of the 31st Fajr International Film Festival was held at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday night.
In a ceremony attended by Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, top movies were awarded in two sections: International Cinema Competition (World Panorama) and Muslim World Filmmakers Competition (Cinema of Salvation), ISNA wrote.
In the Jam-e Jahan-Nama section, the best film and director award went to Behnam Behzadi for ‘Accident Rule’. Oliver Litondo and Emili Watson won the best actor and actress awards for ‘The First Grader’ and ‘Oranges and Sunshine’, respectively.
In the Sa’adat Cinema section, Ali Qavitan won the best screenplay award for ‘Sun, Moonlit, Earth’. ‘A Cradle for Mother’ earned the best director award for Panahbarkhoda Rezaei, and the best actress award for Elham Hamidi. While, Zaman Taha won the best actor award.

Artists Urged to Focus On Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Culture and Islamic guidance minister, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, called on artists to consider subjects such as Prophet’s life in their works introducing various aspects of his life.
According to IBNA, the minister made the above statement in an address to the closing ceremony of the National Congress of the Great Prophet held at Tehran University on February 4.
He underscored the special section allocated to introduction of the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in almost all the cultural festivals held in Iran this year, and posited that artists should consider subjects about the Prophet’s life in their works.

Skyfall Wins Best Film At Evening Standard Awards

James Bond film Skyfall has been named film of the year at the London Evening Standard British Film Awards.
The 23rd film in the secret agent series also picked up blockbuster of the year--selected from the top 10 UK box office hits of 2012, BBC wrote.
Toby Jones was named best actor for Berberian Sound Studio, while Andrea Riseborough was named best actress for Shadow Dancer.
The awards, at the London Film Museum, were presented by Stephen Mangan.
Skyfall has also been nominated for outstanding British film at this year’s Baftas, which take place in London next weekend.
Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands said, “Thanks in part to the extraordinary success of Skyfall--a truly big British movie, delivered with a panache Hollywood could envy - 2012 also highlighted the creativity, vision and talent of a new generation of British filmmakers, actors and actresses.”
Riseborough picked up her award for her role as an IRA informant in political thriller Shadow Dancer. She is also on the shortlist for the Bafta rising star award this Sunday.
The actress, who stars in the film set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, said she was overwhelmed to be recognized.
“It’s a huge affirmation and you work on something for such a long time and you’re so passionate about it, and then you’re so excited other people are responding to it and it’s valuable to them in some way,” she said.
Toby Jones took best actor in the face of competition from Eddie Redmayne for ‘Les Miserables’ and Daniel Day-Lewis, who is hot favorite to win the Oscar for best actor for ‘Lincoln’.

Stolen $1m Henri Matisse Recovered

A stolen Henri Matisse painting, valued at $1m (£620,000), has been found by an art recovery specialist in London.
‘Le Jardin’, or ‘The Garden’, was taken from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm during a robbery in the early hours of 11 May, 1987.
According to reports at the time, attempts were made to sell it back to the museum for exorbitant sums, BBC wrote.
The recovery came after an art dealer in Essex was offered the painting by a Polish collector just before Christmas.
Before handling the work, Charles Roberts, of Charles Fine Art, made a search of the Art Loss Register (ALR), a database of stolen, missing and looted artwork.
Once the match was confirmed, the recovery was handed to ALR director Christopher Marinello, who successfully negotiated the return of the painting, after convincing the individual concerned to release it to the UK.
“No payments were made, no arms were broken,” Mr Marinello said.
The French Impressionist painting is now being held in a safe. It will be handed to the Swedish Ministry of Culture for its return to Stockholm in the coming weeks.
Matisse’s work was the only one taken in the audacious 1987 raid. Burglars broke through the museum’s front entrance with a sledgehammer, and unscrewed it from the wall.
They escaped before private guards arrived, 10 minutes after an alarm was triggered, and the whereabouts of the painting have been a mystery ever since.
At the time of the theft, a spokesman for the museum said the painting was too “well-known” to “sell on the open market”.
Mr Marinello agreed with the sentiment, adding, “I commend the museum for not giving in to ransom demands a quarter century ago. Stolen artwork has no real value in the legitimate marketplace and will eventually resurface... it’s just a matter of waiting it out.”

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.