ISFA, in association with the House of Cinema Film Centre screened the 38 selected short films from the 10th ISFA Awards on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 15-16 in Tehran. The program was met with significant attention and attendance from films’ crews and House of Cinema union members. 

The ISFA official website reports that the films were screened in 3 slots each day. On the first day, the theatre was filled immediately, which caused much of the audience to watch the films sitting on the floor or standing. 

After the screenings, there were Q&A sessions with some of the filmmakers including Hamed Aslani, director of S and Ali Paknia, director of Red Panda on day one, and on day two Karim Lakzaadeh and Siavash Shahabi, directors of Theatrical Kiss and Dissect respectively.

At the beginning of the session Kaveh Sajjadi Hosseini, vice-president of the ISFA and the event host, thanked the House of Cinema management along with the Film Centre director Naser Saffarian for this two-day event, saying: “according to their decision, the screening of short films will be more frequent from now on. This way, both filmmakers that have joined this association earlier or more recently can have a chance to experience this kind of cinema alongside each other. 

Noting the ISFA board of directors’ efforts in increasing the number of venues for this type of screenings he mentioned: “Our goal with hosting these sessions which going forward will be more frequent, is screening short films that were not accepted at the ISFA awards but the board and the screening committee sees worthy of screening and analysis.” 

As the director of the ISFA screening committee, Sajjadi Hosseini also promised to expand the screenings to other cities in Iran and notified of negotiations with the Iranian Artists Forum and Cinema Museum of Iran for further screenings. 

At the end of the event, the House of Cinema Film Centre gifted the directors who attended the Q&A sessions with memorabilia.