Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year announces nominees

Iran’s Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization has announced the nominees for the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year.

Iranian acclaimed filmmaker Ebrahim Hatamikia is among the 14 nominees who were announced on Monday.

The list of nominees has three other filmmakers and documentarians, including Mehdi Naqavian, Mohammad-Ali Bashe-Ahangar, and Kourosh Zarei.

Mohsen Kazemi, Reza Amirkhani, Hedayatollah Behboudi, Niloufar Shadmehri and Mahnaz Fattahi are nominated in the list of writers.

Poets Mohammad-Mehdi Sayyar and Fazel Nazari, TV presenters Payam Fazlinejad and Vahid Yaminpour, as well as graphic designer and calligrapher Masoud Nejabati are the other nominees.

Five will be picked up out of the 14-nominee list and the final winner is to be announced on the last day of the Islamic Revolution Art Week, slated for April 9-16 in Tehran.

Born in 1961, Hatamikia studied Scriptwriting and began his career with writing screenplays for short films about the eight-year Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s.

He directed his first feature film ‘Identity’ in 1986. He established himself as a director who addresses issues pertaining to the Iraq-Iran war and its aftermath with films such as ‘The Scout’, ‘From Karkheh to Rhine’ and ‘The Glass Agency’.

He has made a number of movies, including ‘Mohajer (Immigrant)’, ‘Green Ashes’, ‘Scent of Joseph's Shirt’, ‘Minou Tower’, ‘Red Ribbon’, ‘Dead Wave’, ‘Low Heights’, ‘The Purple’, ‘In the Name of Father’, ‘Invitation’, ‘Che (Chamran)’, ‘Bodyguard’, and ‘Damascus Time’.

Hatamikia has also made series such as ‘Scarlet Soil’ and ‘The Green Ring’ which was aired by ifilm.

He was nominated for two Fajr International Film Festival Crystal Simorghs for Best Script and Best Director for ‘From Karkheh to Rhine’, but it was ‘The Glass Agency’ that won him two Crystal Simorghs.

‘Invitation’ is another film of Hatamikia which brought him nomination for Best Screenplay and Best Directing at Iran Cinema Celebration Statue.

He has so far received several domestic and international awards for ‘In the Name of My Father’, ‘Red Ribbon’, ‘The Glass Agency’, ‘From Karkheh to Rhine’, ‘Mohajer (Immigrant)’, ‘The Scout’, ‘The Purple’, and ‘Che (Chamran)’.

He won the best director award at the 36th edition of the Fajr Film Festival for directing ‘Damascus Time.

MG/MG