(Photo by Kazem Qane)

The 26th International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults ended in Isfahan on Saturday.

Keshavarz Honored

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday awarded the highest culture and arts plaque of honor to the outstanding actor Mohammad Ali Keshavarz.
The President said in a statement that Keshavarz is singled out for the award for his valuable efforts to improve the Iranian arts and culture.
Keshavarz is one of the most famous and best known cinema and theater actors in Iran. He was born in 1930 in Seyhon, Isfahan province, IRNA said.
Keshavarz is a graduate of Art from Art School. He began his artistic activities with ‘Night of Hunchback’ in 1964. He is one of the most experienced and prominent actors of Iranian cinema.
Keshavarz has also appeared in a number of television series. Some of his works are among the masterpieces and enduring works of the Iranian cinema and theater.

‘Bear’ Nominated For Asia Pacific Screen Award

The Iranian drama ‘Bear’ by Khosro Masoumi has received two nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), organizers announced on the APSA website.
Masoumi and producer Javad Norouzbeigi will compete for best director and best film awards.
The award-winning film is about Noureddin, a person missing in action and declared a martyr, who comes home after eight years as a prisoner of war.
He finds his wife remarried. Longing for nothing more than a simple family life with his wife, Noureddin struggles to fight reality.
‘Bear’ won a Golden Goblet Award for best film at the 15th Shanghai International Film Festival last Sunday.
Starring Parviz Parastoui, Merila Zarei and Farhad Aslani, the film has also won two Crystal Simorghs at the 30th Fajr International Film Festival.
The winners of the 2012 APSA will be announced at a ceremony in Brisbane, Australia, on November 23.
The Iranian Oscar-winning movie ‘A Separation’ was named the Best Feature Film at the APSA last year.

In the Galleries

A collection of bronze sculptures by Qodratollah Aqeli is currently on display in an exhibition at the Tarrahan-e Azad Gallery.
The collection, entitled ‘Venus in the Land of Passions’, is comprised of 10 sculptures, which have been created over the past year, Mehr News Agency reported.
The showcase continues until October 18 at the gallery, which can be found at #41, Salmas Square, off Fatemi St.
An exhibition of paintings of nature by Mehrdad Aqayari is currently underway at the Shokouh Gallery.
The exhibit will continue until October 17 at the gallery located at 19 Amir Nouri Alley, North Salimi St., Andarzgou Blvd.

Seminar to Be Held on Bayhaqi

A seminar is planned to begin on October 18, in the presence of cultural figures Gholamali Haddad Adel and Mohammad Jafar Yahaqqi on the status and significance of Persian scholar Bayhaqi.
The Book City Cultural Center has arranged the event. So far, the center has organized for over 300 such sessions on Persian literature luminaries like Rumi, Ferdowsi, Sa’di, Nezami and Attar Neishabouri, IBNA wrote.
Abul-Fazl Bayhaqi was a Persian historian and author.
Bayhaqi was born in the village Haares-Abad of Bayhaq in Khorasan province near Sabzevar. He wrote the famous work of Persian literature ‘Tarikh-e Mas’oudi’ (Masoudian History).

De Niro & Stallone Set to Face Off in ‘Grudge Match’

The stars from the two most iconic boxing movies of all time are finally going to do battle in the ring.
Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone are set to star in the comedy ‘Grudge Match’--a film that Warner Bros. has just greenlit, according to Deadline. The plot revolves around two retired boxers who are coaxed back into the ring by a promoter, played by actor-comedian Kevin Hart, Reuters reported.
This isn’t the first time Stallone and De Niro have appeared on screen together. They both starred in the 1997 crime drama ‘Cop Land.’ Counting 2006’s ‘Rocky Balboa,’ the sixth and final Rocky film (so far), ‘Grudge Match’ will mark the second time Stallone has played a boxer who has come out of retirement to throw some punches.
While we know he’s capable, it’s unclear whether 69-year-old De Niro will try to get in better shape for the role. And lucky for the still-buff (and tan), 66-year-old Stallone, his workout routine seems not to have waned over the years.
It will also be interesting to see what weight class both actors depict in their new boxing film. De Niro and Stallone are similar sizes in real life, but De Niro played a middleweight champ in ‘Raging Bull’ while Stallone played a heavyweight in ‘Rocky.’
The film will be directed by Peter Segal (‘Anger Management’ and ‘The Longest Yard’) and ‘Entourage’ writer Doug Ellin is reported to have written most of the screenplay.

Clapton’s Richter Abstract Sold For Record 34.1m

Tonight in London, Sotheby’s establishes new auction record for Gerhard Richter with sale of his Abstraktes Bild (804-9) for the outstanding sum of $34,190,756, far surpassing pre-sale expectations of £9-12 million, smashing the previous record for the artist by almost $13 million, and establishing the highest price at auction in London this week.
This abstract oil on canvas masterwork from 1994 came from the collection of Eric Clapton and sold to an anonymous buyer after two telephone bidders competed for the work for over 5 minutes until it finally sold to a round of applause for the new record sum, ArtDaily said.
Produced as part of a concise series of four works numbered 809 in Richter’s Catalogue Raisonné, monumentally scaled and richly chromatic Abstraktes Bild (809-4) ranks alongside the very highest tier of Richter Abstracts housed in museums internationally.
Gerhard Richter’s abstract works represent the furthest most point and crowning achievement of his ground-breaking conceptual inquiry into the fundamental objective of painting--an aesthetic investigation that reached its mature zenith at the moment Abstraktes Bild came into being during the mid-1990s.
With its sweeping primaries of red, yellow and blue, in chromatic and compositional power Abstraktes Bild rivals those works held in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the astounding four-part Bach series housed in the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
The sister painting to this work, numbered 809-3, presently resides in the joint collection of the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. Delivering an arresting display of seemingly endless chromatic variegation, Abstraktes Bild possesses an aesthetic authority of the very highest calibre within Richter’s magisterial abstract corpus. Interestingly, the united color palette of Abstraktes Bild confers a particular allusion to RGB color.
Comprised of red, green and blue, the synthesis and manipulation of these three wavelengths of light are utilized for the sensing, representation and display of images in electronic systems as well as for traditional photography. The painting is a masterpiece of calculated chaos and a paradigm of Gerhard Richter’s mature artistic and philosophical achievement.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Haj eradicates poverty.