TEHRAN-The first mobile cinema of Madrese International Short Film Festival (MISFF) is visiting various cities, screening the festival movies, the executive secretary of the festival said.

According to the public relations office of the Art Bureau, Mohammad Darvishi said: “The mobile cinema program that started on November 5 includes showing films in the underprivileged regions of 15 provinces”.

“The priority is with the remote and deprived towns. The feature film “Mansour”, the animated movie “Loupetoo”, and two films from among the winners of Madrese Festival are being shown in the program that will run through November 13,” he added.

“Upon entering each province, in addition to showing films to children and teenagers, we identify talents and those interested in filmmaking, and then we will have incentive and training programs for them in this regard. Later and after evaluations, they can enter our clubs and start making films to be shown to their peers,” Darvishi noted.

Speaking about the Madrese International Short Film Festival, he said: “The festival has cooperated with the Art Bureau since the third edition. This collaboration continued in a more serious form since last year, when the children and teenagers’ section of Art Bureau for was launched. And it is the main organizer of the 9th edition of the film festival”.

Madrese (literally meaning school) festival was established in 2013 by a group of teachers who had concerns about teenagers' education.

At first, they tried to concentrate on a number of schools throughout the city of Tehran; but step by step and with great effort, they have expanded their work through the whole country during the 5th festival; maintaining themselves as the most important short film festival for students under 19.

In this edition, 1294 works from all provinces of Iran have been sent to the festival’s secretariat. The festival’s focus is on the works which have been made by students under 19.

MISFF is trying to prepare an appropriate environment for teenagers to grow by discovering gifted ones and educating them by great art teachers, and to introduce them to the world of art and cinema.

The 9th edition of the festival will be held in March 2024.

SS/SAB