The seventh edition of the Resistance Film Festival was held as usual, two years after the previous edition, from September 31 to October 25, 1998. Mohammad Reza Sharafeddin, who was known as a photographer and responsible for special effects at the time, was the festival’s secretary. Three years later, Sharafeddin made his first feature film as a producer.

The seventh edition of the Resistance Festival hosted 58 feature, short and feature-length fiction and documentary films in two sections, “Short and Feature Films.” There is no mention of documentary in the festival’s section titles, despite the fact that there are a large number of documentary films in it, and several selected documentary films are introduced and awarded at the festival’s closing ceremony. Documentary films are included in the short fiction film section, while each of these two has its own independent and separate definition.

Why the documentary section is not included in the festival’s sections (although it was defined in some previous periods) is questionable. It may not be wrong to say that in those years, the documentary world had not yet found its own definition and place, and it was not given the necessary importance. Even today, after two decades, documentary is not as much of a priority for cultural officials and politicians as it should be, nor is it in the cultural-artistic basket of families.

Feature Film Selection Committee

“Ali Akbar Ghazi-Nizam”, screenwriter “Saeed Shahsavari”, director “Seyed Saeed Seyedzadeh”, director “Ali Mirzaei”, “Mohammad Reza Qazvini”, and “Seyed Mozafar Shojaei” were responsible for selecting the works for this period of the festival.

Feature Film Jury

“Kamal Tabrizi”, writer and director “Mojtaba Ra’i”, director “Esfandiar Shahidi”, cinematographer “Fereidoon Shahbazian”, composer “Mohammad Reza Moeini”, and editor were the members of the festival jury. This time, the jury is entirely made up of film personalities, meaning that compared to previous eras when some cultural and sometimes political figures were included in this composition, the works of the seventh season of the Resistance Film Festival are selected by film personalities.

*There were 20 works in this section, of which “The Glass Agency”, the enduring work of Ebrahim Hatamikia, was one of them. “The Glass Agency” was Hatamikia’s ninth film work, and although Hatamikia had previously made “The Watcher – From Karkheh to the Rhine – Mohajer – The Smell of Yousef’s Shirt and…”, many consider “The Glass Agency” to be Hatamikia’s cinematic birth and flourishing.

The story of the film is about a Basij fighter who tries to treat his comrade but is met with indifference from the authorities. At the Fajr Festival in 2019, the Glass Agency brought 8 Simorghs to its owners, which is a remarkable record. Also, based on several surveys, the Glass Agency won the title of the best Iranian film after the 1979 revolution.

The jury of the short fiction section (which also includes documentaries)

“Mohammad Afrideh” writer, director and producer “Abdullah Bakideh” director “Shahrukh Dulko” cinema critic, screenwriter and director, judged the works in this section of the festival.

The winners of this season’s festival are as follows:

(Feature Films)

Best Sound Recording: Hassan Zahedi for “Shards of the Sun”

Nominees: Jahangir Mirshekari (Land of the Sun), Mahmoud Samakbashi (Prostration to Water and Glass Agency)

Best Sound Editing: Masoud Behnam for “Shards of the Sun”

Nominees: Jahangir Mirshekari (Land of the Sun), Eshaq Khanzadi (Storm and A Man Like Rain)

Best Set Design: Mohammad Hossein Haghighi and Ahmad Moradpour for “Shards of the Sun”

Nominees: Asghar Nejad-emani (A Man Like Rain), Amir Hossein Esbati (Land of the Sun)

Best Original Score: Mohammad Reza Aligholi for “Shards of the Sun, Moon and Sun”

Nominee: Babak Bayat (A Man Like Rain)

Best Special Effects: Mohsen Roozbahani for “Shards of the Sun”

Nominees: Najaf Fattahi (Storm), Davud Rasoulian (A Man Like Rain), Asghar Pourhajerian (Brothers of the Sun)

Best Actor: Parviz Parastoi for the film The Glass Agency

Nominees: Mehdi Gholipour (Brothers of the Sun), Mohammad Reza Forotan (Moon and the Sun)

A plaque of honor and 3 Bahar Azadi coins to Ali Asghar Eshaghi, a child actor in the film Safar Shaban

Best Editing: Roohollah Emami for the film A Man Like Rain

Nominee: Abbas Ganjavi (Land of the Sun and Editing)

Best Actress: Parivosh Nazari for the film Prostration on the Water

Nominee: Golchehreh Sajjadieh (Land of the Sun)

Best Cinematography: Mohammad Aladpoosh for the film Land of the Sun

A plaque of honor and 3 Bahar Azadi coins to Hassan Gholizadeh for the film Tofan

Nominees: Alireza Zarrindast (Prostration on the Water), Parviz Malekzadeh (A Man Like Rain)

Best Screenplay: Mohammad Hossein Haghighi for the film Moon and Sun

Nominees: Ebrahim Hatamikia (Glass Agency), Saeed Soheili (A Man Like Rain), Sadegh Karmyar (Prostration to the Water)

Best Director: Saeed Soheili for The Man Like Rain

Nominees: Mohammad Bozorgnia (Storm), Ebrahim Hatamikia (A Man Like Rain), Ahmadreza Darvish (Land of the Sun)

Best Producer: Varahner Company and Farabi Film Foundation (Glass Agency)

Nominees: Gohoran Film Company and the Center for the Development of Experimental Cinema (A Man Like Rain), Farabi Film Foundation and Film Noor (Prostration to the Water), Manouchehr Shahsavari and the Film and Series Group of the Second Channel of Sima (Moon and Sun)

Special Jury Award: Ebrahim Hatamikia for the screenplay and direction of The Glass Agency and Mohammad Hossein Haghighi for the film Moon and Sun

Short Films (Documentary, Fiction, Music Video)

Best Editing: Ali Akbar Aslani for Sangar

Nominees: Ansiyeh Saebi (Davoud), Hamid Seifi (One of the Men), Kamran Delavar (Khak Behesht)

Best Cinematography: Masoud Amini for Shagufta Eshgah

Nominees: Majid Ghorbanifar (Bar