35th FIFF announces jury panel for Cinema Salvation

Members of the jury panel for the Cinema Salvation section of the 35th edition of the Fajr International Film Festival have been announced.

The organizers recently released the jury list, which includes Florian Gallenberger, Jessica Woodworth, Lech Majewski, Mieko Harada, Uberto Pasolini, Fatemah Motamed-Aria‎‎, and Rasoul Sadrameli.

Born in Munich in 1972, Gallenberger was a co-writer and director on Wim Wenders’ project with film students ‘Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky’, which received an award for Best Documentary at the Montreal Film Festival.

Besides his film work, Gallenberger is a professor at Munich Film School. His latest film ‘Colonia’ starring Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl and Michael Nyqvist, shot in different parts of South America and Europe, was screened in Toronto IFF, Zurich IFF and Berlinale.

Born in 1971 in Washington, US, Woodworth is a film director, screenwriter and producer who grew up in Europe and is based since 2000 in Belgium. Her films have screened in hundreds of festivals including Venice, Cannes, Toronto and Sundance.

She has been on several juries, including Ghent and Zagreb festivals. She is an advisor for film students at the Royal Academy of Arts in Ghent. Her production company, Bo Films, is located in Ghent, Belgium. She is currently developing two new fiction projects.

Polish film and theatre director, writer, poet, and painter, Majewski studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from the National Film School in Łódź, Poland.

His credits include such films as ‘The Knight’, ‘Prisoner of Rio’, ‘Gospel According to Harry’, ‘The Roe’s Room’, ‘Basquiat’, ‘Wojaczek’, ‘Angelus’, ‘The Garden of the Earthly Delights’, ‘Glass Lips’, ‘The Mill and the Cross’, and ‘Field of Dogs’. Presented in festivals at Toronto, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Berlin, Venice and Cannes, his films received numerous prizes.

Born in 1958, Harada is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. Harada portrayed Lady Kaede in Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 film ‘Ran’ and further collaborated with him in his 1990 film ‘Dreams’.

In addition to acting, she won the award for best actress at the 21st Hochi Film Award for ‘Village of Dreams’ by Yoichi Higashi.

Born in 1957 in Rome, Pasolini worked within the British Film Industry since 1983. He became an independent producer and founded Red Wave Films in 1993.

Born in 1961, Motamed-Aria‎‎ is a multi-award-winning Iranian actress. She first got involved in theater during her teen years, and received her degree in theater from Tehran Art Institute.

She is one of the most significant actresses of Iranian cinema. She has been nominated nine times for the best actress award at the Fajr International Film Festival and won the Crystal Simorgh four times.

Born in 1954 in Isfahan, Sadrameli is managing director of Milad Film. He began his journalism career while he was just 17 and worked as reporter, storywriter and editor.

After studying sociology at Paul Valéry university of Montpellier in France, he began his professional activities in the Cinema by production of a film entitled Blood Raining in 1981.

Established in 1982, the Fajr International Film Festival celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to local and international films.

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

The Cinema Salvation competetion section is the international portion of the FIFF.

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

The 35th International Fajr Film Festival is scheduled to take place in the country’s capital of Tehran from April 21 through 28, 2017.

MG/AI