| 16th Fajr International Film Festival | |
| Opening: | The Glass Agency |
| Location: | Tehran, Iran |
| Founded: | 1983 |
| Awards: | Crystal Simorgh |
| Editor In Chief: | Seifollah Dad |
| Language: | Persian, English |
| Preceded By: | 15th |
| Followed By: | 17th |
| Main: | Fajr International Film Festival |
The 16th Fajr International Film Festival (fa|شانزدهمین جشنواره بینالمللی فیلم فجر) held 1–11 February 1998 in Tehran, Iran.
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.
Majid Nadiri, festival's public relations officer, was announced the selection committee members on 3 January as below:[1]
| Closing ceremony of the | |
| Date: | 11 February 1998 |
| Site: | Vahdat Hall |
| Best Film: | The Glass Agency |
| Most Wins: | The Glass Agency (8) |
| Most Nominations: | The Glass Agency (13) |
Awards and nominations of the Competition of Iranian Cinema sections are below:[2]
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| Nominations | Film |
|---|---|
| 13 | The Glass Agency |
| 8 | |
| 7 | |
| 3 | |
| The Pear Tree | |
| 2 | |
| Awards | Film |
|---|---|
| 8 | The Glass Agency |
| 2 | |
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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.
Retrospective of the Fred Zinnemann's career highlights:[3]
Retrospective of the Krzysztof Kieślowski's career highlights:[3]
Retrospective of the Ebrahim Hatamikia's career highlights:
Tribute to the Anthony Quinn by screening of 14 films of his career.[4]
Tribute to the Ezzatolah Entezami by his career highlights:
Tribute the Ennio Morricone by his career highlights:[3]
63 films were requested to participate in the festival which 22 of them were approved for the "Competition of Iranian Cinema" section.[2] 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 .[5] elimination of the "Debut Films" section is another feature of festival's this edition.
The "Competition of International Cinema" section in the festival was introduced for the second time. The first time was in 1990. The section was added in order to FIFF accredit by FIAPF as a competitive international film festival. 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.[6] 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.[6]
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 at this market.
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. However, impact of the former government's policies still remained.