Fajr filmfest to bestow Iranian-made award

The 38th edition of the Fajr Film Festival has set to award the winners with Crystal Simorghs made by Iran artisans.

By a call in August, the festival asked Iranian manufacturers to send their plans for making Crystal Simorgh awards in the country, and the organizers finally signed an agreement with a company to produce the trophies, the deputy director of the festival Ezzatollah Alizadeh announced.

The Crystal Simorgh is a rectangular crystal plate bearing engraving of a phoenix. The trophy has undergone major and minor changes in the design over its 37 years of history.

A major change came in 2013, when the crystal plate was transformed into a crystal statue of a Simorgh designed by veteran Iranian artist Ebrahim Haqiqi. the bird is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as a "phoenix".

A Czech artisan created 50 copies based on the design in Bohemia, a major center for crystal and glass objects in the Czech Republic. However, the result was not satisfactory.

Haqiqi revised the design and the festival honored winners with the hand-made crystal statues for two years.

Due to the flimsy construction of the crystal statues, the organizers of the festival later restored the award to its former design.

The Fajr Film Festival coincides with the Ten-Day Fajr (Dawn) ceremonies across Iran, marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Since its establishment in 1982, the Fajr Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of Iranian Cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Ministry of Culture, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran every year.

The 38th Fajr Film Festival is set to kick off on February 1, 2020 and runs till February 11 in Tehran.

This is while the international version of the festival will be held in April 2020.

MG/AG