Paul Schrader to attend 2019 Fajr

Award-winning American film critic, screenwriter, director, and author Paul Schrader will be a special guest at the 37th annual Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) in Iran’s capital city of Tehran.

The renowned screenwriter will also be holding a workshop on transcendental style in film, at this year’s festival.

Known for his scriptwriting in many of Martin Scorsese’s classics including ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Raging Bull’, the renowned screenwriter first drew the attention of Hollywood directors with the 1974 film ‘Yakuza’, co-written by Schrader and his brother.

With Scorsese’s 1976 classic ‘Taxi Driver’ being nominated for Best Picture and winning the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Schrader would go on to write scripts for other Scorsese classic including ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘Bringing Out the Dead’.

Following the success of ‘Taxi Driver’, Schrader would also begin his directing debut for the 1978 film ‘Blue Collar’, his first feature co-written with his brother.

Schrader would then go on to direct 17 other feature films including the crime dramas ‘Hardcore’ and ‘American Gigolo’, his remake of the horror classic ‘Cat People’, and the 1985 biographical drama ‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’.

His latest film, ‘First Reformed’, is a drama about a pastor of a diminishing historical church who is faced with questions on faith and morality.

The award-winning feature has received many awards and nominations, including a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the 2019 Academy Awards and the Best Screenplay award at the New York Film Critics Circle.

Schrader has also written a book, Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer published in 1982, which delves into the similarities between directors Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, and Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Other guests of the 37th FIFF include Dimitri Alips of Courant 3d Film Festival; Julie Bertucelli, assistant Director to a host of well-known directors including Krystof Kieslowski, Bertrand Tavernier, and Rithy Panh; Turkish writer and film critic Rıza Oylum, Romanian director and screenwriter Adina Pintilie, and Chinese producer and director Liu Xuan.

Established in 1982, the FIFF is an event that celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed filmmakers, and pays tribute to local and international films.

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

The 37th edition of the Iranian film event will screen films in nine categories including the International Competition, Eastern Vista, Festival of Festivals, Popular Genre Films and Burn Olives which is a window to the changes in the world of Islam today. The festival will be held April 18-26, 2019 in Tehran, Iran.

MB/FM