The Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) was back at the Berlinale this year with a stand, flashmob and a panel discussion on why it believes the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should stop accepting Oscar submissions from Iran\u2019s state Farabi cinema body.<\/p>\n
It was the third year running that the association \u2013 which was created in 2023 in the wake of the Woman Life Freedom movement, sparked by the death of 22-year-old\u00a0Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 22, 2022\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 had a presence at the festival and its EFM market.<\/p>\n More from Deadline<\/p>\n The panel event, the subject of which was decided in late December, was a somber affair in the wake of the harsh crackdown by Iran\u2019s Islamic Republic government on anti-government demonstrations on January 8 and 9, which has left thousands dead or detained.<\/p>\n It kicked off with a montage of footage collated from social media posts and material sent directly to IIFMA from Iran, capturing the protests and violent crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cI welcome you to this very important panel but as you know we have to adjust when the world changes,\u201d said IIFMA board member Mahshid Zamani by way of introduction.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to share a short video which shows a few scenes from an unimaginable massacre that happened in Iran, in my country, on January 8 and 9, just a few weeks ago\u2026 the images shown are chilling\u2026 they serve as reminder of the struggles faced by those yearning for freedom,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n \u201cEach frame captures the courage, hope and longing that define the Iranian spirit while also shedding light on the brutal realities imposed by a repressive, fanatic, Islamic, terrorist regime. Tens of artists were murdered while bravely standing up for their beliefs in the uprising of January 8 and 9.\u201d<\/p>\n It was not an easy watch showing images of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers kicking women to the ground and dragging them by their hair; bodies peppered with bullet holes, and relatives looking for loved ones among row upon row of black body bags.<\/p>\n Prior to showing the video, Zamani read out a list of musicians, artists, filmmakers and actors confirmed as having been killed in the crackdown as well as another half dozen arts and culture professionals who have been detained, requesting that that the audience applaud each of the names.<\/p>\n The dead included 38-year-old photographer Shokoufeh Abdi, a mother of two young girls, who was shot dead in the industrial city of Arak in Northern Central Iran, and directors Ahmad Abbasi and Javad Genji, whose deaths were previously reported on by Deadline<\/a>, as well as puppeteer Shabnam Ferdowsi. (Scroll down for the full list).<\/p>\n Screenwriter Shadmehr Rastin, a writer on Jafar Panahi\u2019s It Was Just An Accident; Richard Lorber, chairman and CEO of independent distribution Kino Lorber, and film programmer C\u00e9line Roustan joined the panel, delving into Iran\u2019s Islamic Regime controlled selection process for the International Feature Film category.<\/p>\n In pre-recorded interventions, Rastin explained the workings of the Farabi\u2019s submission process, and the case for supporting an entry from an independent cinema body.<\/p>\n Lorber, who is among the voters for the international category, acknowledged that he had not really understood the implications of Farabi\u2019s involvement, suggesting this would be case for most AMPAS members.<\/p>\n He noted that he had watched Iran\u2019s Farabi-selected submission to the 98th Academy Awards, Cause of Death: Unknown\u00a0by Ali Zarnegar and not found it particularly pro-regime.<\/p>\n One of the Iranian audience members said the submission of Zarnegar\u2019s film, which is critical of aspects of life in Iran, had been a deliberate ploy by Farabi to counter dissident director Panahi\u2019s Cannes Palme d\u2019Or winning It Was Just An Accident, which was entered by France and has since made it to the final nominations list.<\/p>\n Zamani acknowledged that it was surprising that Iranian directors signed up to represent Iran under the current selection process, but that the tide was turning.<\/p>\n She suggested that few cinema professionals still wanted to cooperate with the government in the wake of the crackdown, pointing to a boycott of the recent Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, which in the past has managed to draw a smattering of directors and actors.<\/p>\n IIFMA followed the panel with a flashmob event on Berlin\u2019s Potsdamer Platz reenacting the scenes of rows of body bags in the wake of the crackdown and commemorating the dead.<\/p>\n IIFMA collated list of dead arts and culture professionals:<\/p>\n Dead<\/p>\n Ahmad Abbasi \u2013 filmmaker<\/p>\n Shokoufeh Abdi \u2013 photographer<\/p>\n Melika Dastyab \u2013 musician<\/p>\n Pouya Faragardi \u2013 musician<\/p>\n Shabnam Ferdowsi \u2013 puppeteer, graphic designer<\/p>\n Javad Ganji \u2013 filmmaker<\/p>\n Sorena Golgoun \u2013 musician<\/p>\n Yaser Modir-Rousta \u2013 musician<\/p>\n Sanam Pourbabaei \u2013 musician<\/p>\n Sahba Rashtian \u2013 painter and animation director<\/p>\n Mehdi Salahshour \u2013 sculptor<\/p>\n Zohre Shamaeizade \u2013 script supervisor and voice actor<\/p>\n Mohammed \u2018Shahou\u2019 Shirazi \u2013 singer<\/p>\n Mostafa Rabeti \u2013 filmmaker<\/p>\n Reyhaneh Yousefi \u2013 actor<\/p>\n Amir-Ali Zarei \u2013 musician, art student<\/p>\n Detained<\/p>\n Dawood Abbasi \u2013 filmmaker and cinematographer<\/p>\n Navid Zarehbin \u2013 filmmaker<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) was back at the Berlinale this year with a stand, flashmob and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[14278,14276,14280,112,14282,190,12997,14283,2271,14279,14277,5810,14281],"class_list":{"0":"post-20682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-22-year-old-mahsa-amini","9":"tag-academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences","10":"tag-ahmad-abbasi","11":"tag-berlin","12":"tag-farabi","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-iifma","15":"tag-independent-filmmakers","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-islamic-republic-government","18":"tag-mahshid-zamani","19":"tag-panel-discussion","20":"tag-violent-crackdown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}