Abbas Kiarostami was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012.
Majid Majidi is an Iranian film director, producer, and screenwriter, who started his film career as an actor. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous international awards.
The Cinema of Iran, also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame and now enjoy a global following. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language. Iranian cinema has had many ups and downs.
Jafar Panâhi is an Iranian film director, from east Azerbaijan province, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award an Iranian film won at Cannes.
Mehmet Arif Onat Kutlar, also known as Onat Kutlar, was a prominent Turkish writer and poet, founder of the Turkish Sinematek and one of the founders of the Istanbul International Film Festival.
Reshad Strik is a Bosnian-Australian actor and filmmaker.
Bahman Farmanara is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Bahman Farmanara is the second son in a family of four brothers and one sister. The family business was Textile and he was the only son who did not join the business and went off to the United Kingdom and later on to the United States to study acting and directing. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Cinema in 1966. After returning to Iran and doing military service, he joined the National Iranian Radio and Television.
Ali Mosaffa is an Iranian actor and director.
Halit Refiğ was a Turkish film director, film producer, screenwriter and writer. He made around sixty films, including feature films, documentaries and TV serials. He is considered to be the pioneer of the National Cinema movement and the initiator of the production of TV serials in Turkey.
Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. Farhadi has won critical praise for his international films which focus on the human condition as well as portray intimate and challenging stories of internal family conflicts. His films include About Elly (2009), A Separation (2011), The Past (2013), The Salesman (2016), Everybody Knows (2018), and A Hero (2021).
Sohrab Shaheed Salles or Sohrab Shahid-Saless was an Iranian film director and screenwriter and one of the most celebrated figures in Iranian cinema in the 20th century. After 1976 he worked in the cinema of Germany and was an important component of the film diaspora working in the German industry.
Masoud Kimiai is an Iranian director, screenwriter and producer.
Iranian New Wave refers to a movement in Iranian cinema. It started in 1964 with Hajir Darioush's second film Serpent's Skin, which was based on D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover featuring Fakhri Khorvash and Jamshid Mashayekhi. Darioush's two important early social documentaries But Problems Arose in 1965, dealing with the cultural alienation of the Iranian youth, and Face 75, a critical look at the westernization of the rural culture, which was a prizewinner at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival, also contributed significantly to the establishment of the New Wave. In 1968, after the release of Shohare Ahoo Khanoom directed by Davoud Mollapour, The Cow directed by Dariush Mehrjui followed by Masoud Kimiai's Qeysar in 1969, Nasser Taqvai's Tranquility in the Presence of Others, and immediately followed by Bahram Beyzai's Downpour, the New Wave became well established as a prominent cultural, dynamic and intellectual trend. The Iranian viewer became discriminating, encouraging the new trend to prosper and develop.
Sami Mermer is a Turkish Canadian documentary filmmaker of Kurdish descent.
Pourān Derakh'shandeh is an Iranian film director, producer, screen writer, and researcher.
Rakhshān Banietemad is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director and screenwriter who is widely considered a premier female director and her films have been praised at international festivals as well as being popular with Iranian critics and audiences. Her title as "First Lady of Iranian Cinema" is not only a reference to her prominence as a filmmaker, but also connotes her social role of merging politics and family in her work. Her signature style is that she focuses on a character that is the representation of a part of the society in order to explore it while staying objectively neutral. The first period of Banietemad's cinematic activity originates from a kind of dark humor, but in the second period of her work, dark humor gives way to serious and influential films, and deeper and broader issues are addressed. Banietemad has a more realistic view of life.
Granaz Moussavi , is an Iranian-Australian contemporary poet, film director and screenwriter. She is primarily renowned for her avant-garde poetry in the 90s. Her award-winning debut feature film My Tehran for Sale is an internationally acclaimed Australian-Iranian co-production.
Shahram Alidi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is also a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. Alidi is part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave. These filmmakers share many common techniques including the use of poetic dialogue
and allegorical story telling. His credits include the 2009 film Whisper with the wind.
Ashraf Fahmy (Arabic: أشرف فهمي 25 August 1936 – 25 January 2001 was an Egyptian film director, active in the Egyptian film industry since the late 1960s. He was credited with launching his career and directing his first feature film starring the leading film star Salah Zulfikar making huge commercial success. Fahmy is a daring director frequently seen in film festivals worldwide, in addition he wrote the script of three films including, which is considered his most memorable movie.
Vahid Jalilvand is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, actor, voice actor and film editor.
