TEHRAN -- The 10th Cinema Verite, Iran’s major international festival for documentary cinema, opened at Tehran’s Charsu Cineplex on Sunday.

Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) Director Mohammad–Mehdi Tabatabainejad, Iranian Youth Cinema Society (IYCS) Director Farid Farkhondehkish and a number of documentarians attended the opening ceremony, Persian media reported.

Speaking at the ceremony, veteran documentarian Manuchehr Tayyab said that Cinema Verite has helped open a new path for Iranian documentarians to show their culture to the world, and has helped portray a true image of Iran to the world.

“Happily the international festivals warmly welcome Iranian documentaries, and many like to know more about them. Cinema Verite has provided a good opportunity for foreign audiences to find out more about life in Iran and learn about the positive and negative points,” Tayyab said.

He also hoped that the festival encourages more young filmmakers to be active in the field of documentary.

A collection of documentaries from different countries will be competing in different categories of the festival this year.

Among the films are “Arlette, Courage Is a Muscle” by Florian Hoffmann from Germany and “A Walnut Tree” by Ammar Aziz from Pakistan, “The Successor” by Mattia Epifani from Italy, “Aida’s Crossover” by Liliana Resnick from Croatia and “Ukrainian Sheriffs” by Roman Bondarchuk from Germany.

The best films will be judged by a panel of jury members including Dimitri Kerkinos, the artistic director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, Bosnian producer Alma Tataragic and Iranian filmmaker Ahmad Zabeti Jahromi.

Films in the mid-length and short categories will be judged by Wood Lin, the program director of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Italian director Stefano Tealdi and Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Razzaq-Karimi.

Film distributors and executives of several international festivals of documentary cinema will be attending the market of the 10th Cinema Verite.

The market will be held on the sidelines of the festival with a delegate of the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, Giona A. Nazzaro, French film producer Etienne Ricard and Thom Powers, the artistic director of the DOC NYC, who is also the program director of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The 10th Cinema Verite will be running until December 11.

Photo: Veteran filmmaker Manuchehr Tayyab cuts a cake during an opening celebration for the 10th edition of the Cinema Verite at Tehran’s Charsu Cineplex on December 4, 2016. DEFC Director Mohammad–Mehdi Tabatabainejad is also seen in the photo. (Mehr/Ashraf Tabatabai)

RM/YAW