TEHRAN -- Seven countries will be participating at the 11th Festival of Student Puppet Theater which will be held from November 22 to 29 in Tehran.

A total of 30 works were submitted to the International Section of the gala out of which eight works were selected, the secretary of the festival Isa Nuri mentioned during a press conference on Monday.
Performances from France, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Canada, Australia and Armenia will go on stage at the festival, he said.
“Mask and Puppet”, “Research”, “International Section”, “Poster and Photo” and “Writing Drama” are the sections of this edition of the festival, he added.
The secretariat of the festival held two educational workshops “The Puppet Making” by Mohammad Alami and “The Knowledge of Puppet Show” by Javad Zolfaghari over the past few weeks, he said.
Nuri went on to say that the Farabi Hall of University of Art is currently hosting a workshop on directing puppet shows by Behruz Gharibpur.
At the conference, the counselor of the festival Behruz Gharibpur expressed appreciation for Nuri’s efforts in dealing with the many problems that had to be resolved before the festival could be held.
He asked the officials to support the festival as a cultural necessity which boosts art and culture in Iran.
He lamented that the degrading looks of critics at the student theater festivals disheartens the young artists.
“I hope that the next edition of the festival will be held without any delays or difficulties,” he added,
The festival was not held last year due to financial problems and also lack of coordination between the University of Art and Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, which are jointly responsible for holding the festival.
The motto of this edition of the festival is “Universities’ sympathy and cooperation” and all students have equal rights in the festival, he said.
The festival will be held at the Iranian Artists Forum, the University of Art, the Honar Hall, the Niavaran Cultural Center and the Farabi Hall.