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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] [4]
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.[5]
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."[6]
1st Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
2nd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
3rd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
4th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
5th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
6th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
7th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges
8th Annual Noor Film Festival judges
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.[7]
| Year | Recipient | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Producer, director | ||
| 2011 | Producer | ||
| 2013 | Actress | ||
| 2014 | Actor |
| Award | Recipient | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Theme Award | Ryan Haidarian | Aref |
| Audience Favorite | 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 | The Dragonfly Storm (short) | |
| Award | Recipient | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme Award | Armin Palangi | Hidden Generation | |
| Audience Favorite | 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 |
| 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 | 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 |
| Award | Recipient | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience Favorite | Circumstance | ||
| Best Director | Circumstance | ||
| Best Actress | Circumstance | ||
| Best Actor | 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 |
| 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 |
| Award | Recipient | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience Favorite | Snow on Pines | ||
| Best Feature Film | Youssef Delara/Michael D. Olmos | Filly Brown | |
| Best Feature Film Director | 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 |
| Best short film | Ali Asgari | More Than Two Hours | |
| Best Short film Director | Ethan Rains | Still Here | |
| Best Animation | Behrouz Bagheri | The Hard Dream | |
| Best Documentary | Iran's Unwanted Sons and daughters | Out of Rain | |
| Best Documentary Director | Ayat Najafi | No Land's Song | |
| Best Feature film | Mohammadreza Vatandoust | When The Lemons Turned Yellow | |
| Best Film Director | Desiree Akhavan | Appropriate Behavior | |
| Best Story or Idea | Nima Shayeghi | Boys With Broken Ears | |
| Audience Favorite | K-von Moezzi | Nowruz: Lost & found |
| Best Feature Film | Salem Salavati | The Last Winter | |
| Best Short Film | Ali Asghari | The Baby | |
| Best Documentary | Shahriar Siami Shal | Out Of Focus | |
| Best Animation | Maryam Farahzadi | The Role Of Each Fret | |
| Best Short Documentary | Hilda Hashempour | I.D. |