The Noor Iranian Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Los Angeles, California, founded by cultural producer Siamak Ghahremani and co-founder Anthony Azizi in 2007. The festival's namesake comes from the word Nur, also spelled Noor, meaning to shed light or "noor," on Iranian culture and heritage through Iranian cinema. A non-profit, non-religious, and non-political organization, the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) was created to shed light, or ‘noor,’ on Persian culture, helping to express the beauty of a culture that is commonly misperceived due to its portrayal in the media. Additional to the main annual festival in Los Angeles, a tour of the program has made several return trips to cities such as Daytona Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
The Los Angeles festival has been held at such venues as the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA Campus, Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills and Magnin Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center. It has taken place every year since 2007, with the exception of 2010, where due to Iran's political uprising in 2010, and out of respect for the people in Iran, the festival decided to postpone its 4th festival to 2011. The postponement was also due to a lack of sponsorship and seed money for the festival.
Programming The program blocks have included feature films, documentaries, short films and animated films, all of which were selected to shed light on Iranian culture and heritage. Their submission guidelines for filmmakers state: "NIFF accepts films from Iranian filmmakers, films made about Iran or Iranians, and/or films that include Iranians as part of the cast or crew."
Judges 1st Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Natasha Henstridge, Maz Jobrani, Harry Lennix, Shaun Toub, Kyle Secor
2nd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Shohreh Aghdashloo, Reza Badiyi, Rainn Wilson, Omid Djalili, Ever Carradine
3rd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Brooke Adams, Esai Morales, Habib Zargarpour, Rudi Bakhtiar, Ali Pourtash
4th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Corey Feldman, Kami Asgar, Max Martini, Bai Ling, Frances Fisher
5th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Navid Negahban, Homa Sarshar, Behrouz Vossoughi, Tony Plana, Kristoff St. John
6th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Marshall Manesh, Dennis Haysbert, Faraj Heidari
7th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges Omid Abtahi, Mahnaz Afshar, Catherine Dent 8th Annual Noor Film Festival judges
Reza Sixo Safai, Mozhan Marno, Ayat Najafi
Awards Additional to judged awards for films screened at the festival, the event selects honorary recipients with a career achievement award. In 2013 the festival announced that the Achievement Award would be renamed the Reza Badiyi Achievement Award, in honor of the director/producer Reza Badiyi, recipient of the festival's first Achievement Award in 2009.
Achievement Awards Year Recipient Role 2009 Reza Badiyi Producer, director 2011 Bob Yari Producer 2013 Shohreh Aghdashloo Actress 2014 Shaun Toub Actor
Film Awards
2007 Award Recipient Film Theme Award Ryan Haidarian Aref Audience Favorite Mohammad Shirvani President Mir Qanbar Best Comedy Kaveh Sejadhosseini Cold City Best Animation Amir Mehran The Lost Waves Best Story Bahman Dadfar Flying Next to the Red Chair Best Drama Sasan Saleimani It Takes Time As Smoking A Cig Best Documentary Mehdi Rahmani The Autumn Boys Best Director Shahram Mokri The Dragonfly Storm (short)
2008 Award Recipient Film Theme Award Armin Palangi Hidden Generation Audience Favorite Aryana Farshad Mystic Iran Best Animation Saeid Ghahari Rebirth of Rostam Best Story Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6 Best Documentary Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6 Best Director Jahangir Golestan Bam 6.6
2009 Award Recipient Film Best Feature Film Sabine El Gemayel Niloofar Audience Favorite Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore Best Documentary Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore Best Director Faramarz Rahber Donkey in Lahore Best Story Mohammad Nourizad Flags of Kaveh's Castle Best Actor Abazar Noorizad Flags of Kaveh's Castle Best Actress Mobina Aynehdar Niloofar Best Short Film Ladan Yalzadeh The Florist
2011 Award Recipient Film Audience Favorite Maryam Keshavarz Circumstance Best Director Maryam Keshavarz Circumstance Best Actress Nikohl Boosheri Circumstance Best Actor Navid Negahban Liberation (Short) Best Story Jon Goldman Diplomacy Best Short Film Jon Goldman Diplomacy Best Documentary Joe Ayella American Coup Best Animation Ameneh Eslami Little Tale of Us
2012 Award Recipient Film Audience Favorite Morteza Rezvani The Iran I Remember Best Feature Film Dave Moutray/Shahaub Roudbari Losing Her Best Feature Film Director Esmaeel Mihandoust A Very Close Encounter Best Documentary Tanaz Eshaghian Be Like Others Best Documentary Director Beate Petersen Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives Best Story Ala Mohensi My City Pizza Best Short Film Ana Lily Amirpour A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Best Short Film Director Ana Lily Amirpour Pashmaloo
2013 Award Recipient Film Audience Favorite Peyman Moaadi Snow on Pines Best Feature Film Youssef Delara/Michael D. Olmos Filly Brown Best Feature Film Director Marjane Satrapi/Vincent Paronnaud Chicken with Plums Best Documentary Aref Mohammadi A Survivor from Magadan Best Documentary Director Nahid Persson Sarvestani My Stolen Revolution Best Story Aref Mohammadi A Survivor from Magadan Best Short Film Neysan Sobhani Dimensions Best Short Film Director Parish Rahbar Fade Best Animation Mo Davoudian Pepe and Lucas Best Animation Director Mo Davoudian Pepe and Lucas 2014 +AwardRecipientFilmBest short filmAli AsgariMore Than Two Hours Best Short film DirectorEthan RainsStill HereBest AnimationBehrouz BagheriThe Hard DreamBest DocumentaryIran's Unwanted Sons and daughters Out of RainBest Documentary DirectorAyat NajafiNo Land's SongBest Feature filmMohammadreza VatandoustWhen The Lemons Turned YellowBest Film DirectorDesiree AkhavanAppropriate BehaviorBest Story or IdeaNima ShayeghiBoys With Broken Ears Audience FavoriteK-von Moezzi Nowruz: Lost & found 2016 +AwardRecipientFilmBest Feature FilmSalem SalavatiThe Last WinterBest Short FilmAli AsghariThe BabyBest DocumentaryShahriar Siami ShalOut Of FocusBest AnimationMaryam FarahzadiThe Role Of Each FretBest Short DocumentaryHilda HashempourI.D.
See also History of the Iranians in Los Angeles
References
External links Noor Iranian Film Festival - Official Website - (archived)