A Short History of Tehran International Animation Festival
Despite the four decades of animation production in Iran and the three-decade experience of KANOON (Institute for the intellectual Development of children & Young Adults) in Producing animations, screening the animated films in the country was limited to lateral sections of Iranian film festivals (along documentaries and fiction films) until the last year of twentieth century. This was while in spite of the disregard and neglecting, brilliant animations were produced, most of which could have gain diverse success in international fields.
The opening of the first Tehran International Animation Festival in February of 2000 was an end to this neglecting and a starting point for a new period in screening of national & foreign animations in Iran.
From the 896 works received by the bureau of the festival, 488 works were selected among which there were works of artists from 33 countries around the world. In the four-day festival, beside the national & international competition section, several other section were held, such as "Special Screenings dedicated to Feodor Khitrouk & Esfandiar Ahmadieh", " Hungarian Animation: Pannonia Film Studio", "ASIFA Korea", "Reviews of Bruno Bozzetto's & Ali Akbar Sadeqi's Works". The Jury of international competition (Nikola Majdak from Yugoslavia, Alexanderovich Alimov from Russia, Detelina Kreck from Germany, Jiri Kubicek from Czech, and Ali-Akbar Sadeqi from Iran) & national competition (Ali-Akbar Sadeqi, Akbar Alami, Esfandiar Ahmadieh, Nafiseh Riahi, Saeed Tavakolin, Ebrahim Foruzesh & Abolfazl Razani) selected the bests of the first edition of the festival.
Two years later, in the beginning of the third millennium, Iranian animation was no more desperate and isolated. Although the festival was arranged for the professionals of the field, it was welcomed by a huge audience and the animations of 36 countries attended the third edition of festival, showed an improved in quality. "Dreams of The Snowland: Productions of National Film Board of Canada", "A light in the fog: Ardman Studio Productions", "Nureddin Zarin Kelk and Nafiseh Riahi Retrospectives", "Selected Works: Two decades with Oscar", "Festival of festivals" and "Dialogue among civilizations" were among the special sections of the festival. Bretislav Pojar (Czech), Sayoko Kinoshita (Japan), Nelson Shine (Korea), Tiziana Loschi (France) & Hamid Navim (Iran) were the members of international competition Jury while Abdollah Alimorad, Saeed Tavakolian, Ali-Akbar Sadeqi, Ebrahim Foruzesh, Akbar Alami, Abolfazl Razani & Nahid Shamsdoust were responsible as member of the national competition jury. Meanwhile, an animation workshop was held alongside the festival under supervision of Erling Erickson.
The Number of countries participating in the third edition of TIAF was increased to 52, which shows that the festival could have reached a great status not only in Iran but also in the world. 175 works were screened in the 3rd edition of festival and the members of international competition jury included: Marcell Jankovics (Hungary), Natalia Orlova (Russia), Abi Feijo (Portugal), Katariina Liliqvsit (Finland) and Saeed Tavakolian (Iran). Ali-Akbar Sadeqi, Akbar Alami, Seyed Ali-Reza Golpaygani, Amir-Mohammad Dehestani and Farkhondeh Torabi were the members of national competition jury. The non-competitive sections of festival were also more diverse, including "Festival of Festivals", "Filmografo", "Folimag & AFCA", "Student's Animations", "Vahidollah Fard-Moqaddam Retrospective" and "TV Animations: Saba Cultural Art Co."
The 4th TIAF was held with the presence of 472 animations from 61 countries. Ebrahim Foruzesh, Vahidollah Fard-Moqaddam, Abdollah Alimorad, Saeed Tavakolian, and Fahimeh Sorkhabi selected the best works of national competition and Gilian Lacy (England), Morad Kertobi (France), Marjot Rimminen (Finland), Jerzy Kucia (Poland), and Akbar Alami (Iran) were responsible as members of the 4th festival jury. "Ishu Patel, A Bridge between East & West", "Imaginary Portraits: works of Gerrit van Dijk & Karen Aqua", "A Selection of Loose Moose Co.", "Supinfocom School", "Nexus Film Ltd." & "The works of Plympton , Kucia & Marjut Rimminen" were some of the non-competitive sections of the 4th edition of the festival.
Grounding the previous four successful edition of the festival, we are to commence the 5th edition, with the hope to accelerate the improvement of quality and status of Iranian animation.