16th Fajr International Film Festival


The 16th Fajr International Film Festival held 1–11 February 1998 in Tehran, Iran.
The Glass Agency was the festival's best film in "Competition of Iranian Cinema" and The Promise —a Belgian film— was the festival's best film in "Competition of International Cinema".
The Glass Agency won a record-tying nine awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Selection committee

Majid Nadiri, festival's public relations officer, was announced the selection committee members on 3 January as below:
;Competition of Iranian Cinema
;Competition of International Cinema
Awards and nominations of the Competition of Iranian Cinema sections are below:
;Audience Choice

  • The Glass Agency – Varahonar and, producers
;Competition

  • The Glass Agency – Varahonar and, producers
  • * – and IRIB TV2, producers
  • * The Pear Tree – Dariush Mehrjui, and, producers
  • * ' – and, producers
  • * ' –, producer
  • Ebrahim Hatamikia – The Glass Agency
  • * –
  • * Dariush Mehrjui – The Pear Tree
  • * Rakhshan Bani-Etemad – '
  • * – '
  • Parviz Parastui – The Glass Agency
  • * –
  • * Mohammad-Reza Foroutan – '
  • Anis Shakouri –
  • * – '
  • * Niki Karimi – '
  • * Fatemeh Motamed-Arya – '
  • * Vishka Asayesh – '
  • Reza Kianian – The Glass Agency
  • * – The Glass Agency
  • * Jahangir Almasi – '
  • – The Glass Agency
  • * Golab Adineh – '
  • * Fahimeh Rastkar – '
  • The Glass Agency – Ebrahim Hatamikia
  • * ' – Behrouz Afkhami
  • * ' –
  • * ' – Saeid Shapouri
  • –
  • * The Glass Agency – Aziz Saati
  • * ' – Hossein Jafarian
  • * ' –
  • The Glass Agency – Hayedeh Safiyari
  • * The Pear Tree –
  • * ' –
  • * ' –
  • * ' – and
  • The Glass Agency – Majid Entezami
  • * ' – Hossein Alizadeh
  • * ' –
  • * ' –
  • – Mohammad-Reza Delpak
  • * The Glass Agency –
  • * ' – Parviz Abnar
  • * ' – Abbas Rastgarpour
  • – Abbas Rastgarpour
  • * ' –
  • * ' –
  • –
  • * The Glass Agency – Hamidreza Charakchian
  • * ' – Soheila Hashemi
  • – Abdollah Eskandari
  • * The Glass Agency – Mehrdad Mirkiani
  • * ' – Atefeh Razavi and
  • –
    		• -
    ;Non-nomination Crystal Simorgh

    • ' –
    ;Films with multiple nominations and awards
    The following 10 films received multiple nominations:
    NominationsFilm
    13The Glass Agency
    8'
    7'
    7'
    3'
    3'
    3The Pear Tree
    2'
    2'
    2'

    The following 3 films received multiple awards:
    AwardsFilm
    8The Glass Agency
    2'
    2'

    Competition of International Cinema


  • Petr Václav – Marian
  • Zhu Xu – The King of Masks
  • Golshifteh Farahani – The Pear Tree
  • Super Citizen Ko – Wan Jen and
    • ;Non-nomination Crystal Simorgh

    • – and, producers
    ;Additional Honorary Diploma:
    The festival's other sidebar sections included tributes to Anthony Quinn and Ezzatolah Entezami, retrospectives of the of the works of three directors —Fred Zinnemann, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Ebrahim Hatamikia—, screening of the selected works for which Ennio Morricone had composed the music, "Festival of Festivals", and special screenings.

    Facing Mirrors

    Retrospective of the Fred Zinnemann's career highlights:
    Retrospective of the Krzysztof Kieślowski's career highlights:
    Retrospective of the Ebrahim Hatamikia's career highlights:
    Tribute to the Anthony Quinn by his career highlights.
    Tribute to the Ezzatolah Entezami by his career highlights:
    Tribute the Ennio Morricone by his career highlights:
    63 films were requested to participate in the festival which 22 of them were approved for the "Competition of Iranian Cinema" section. For the first time, FIFF had had opening ceremony that took place on 31 January 1998, at the City Theater in Tehran, Iran. Also for the first time, press conference for each film of the competitive sections was held at the :fa:سینما صحرا|Sahra Cinema. The "Competition of International Cinema" section in the festival was introduced for the second time. The first time was in 1990. The section was added in order to FIFF accredit by FIAPF as a competitive international film festival. elimination of the "Debut Films" section is another feature of festival's this edition.
    The "Iranian Film Market" was established and took place during the festival. For example, National Film Development Corporation of India , the central agency of Indian cinema, sent a delegation to the IFM and spent at this market.

    Critical response

    16th FIFF marked by a powerful selection committee that did not allow many commercial films to enter into competition section. An Audience Award also introduced this year. All these made the FIFF regain the credibility it had in the past, i.e. before the politicians not familiar with cinema took charge. However, impact of the former government's policies still remained.

    Footnotes