TEHRAN-The 23rd film and television ceremony of Picture World Magazine (also known as Hafez Awards) announced the winners on Saturday in a ceremony held at the Ministry of Interior Hall in Tehran.

The event presented awards to the best of cinema and television and also honored the veteran actor and director Morteza Aghili, ISNA reported.

In the film section of the ceremony, 14 awards were presented.

After the death of the globally renowned filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in 2016, a special prize was added to the ceremony awards in his honor, to be given to a young innovative filmmaker since Kiarostami was known as an auteur for his creative works.

This year, the Abbas Kiarostami Statuette was given to filmmaker Ahmad Bahrami for his film “The Wastetown”.

Soroush Sehhat won the best director award for “Breakfast with Giraffes” and Arman Khansarian grabbed the award for the best screenplay for “Orange Forest”.

The best actress award went to two actresses Elnaz Shakerdoost (Bodiless) and Banafsheh Samadi (The Sun of That Moon).

In the category of the best actor, Reza Attaran (Bright House) and Milad Keymaram (The West Sky) shared the award.

In the TV section, 13 statuettes were presented to the winners.

Mehran Modiri was recognized as the most popular TV figure for his reality TV competition series “Guess Which Hand,” also known as “Gol ya Pooch”.

The special jury prize went to Ehsan Alikhani for the reality show/comedy contest “Joker 2”.
The romance drama series “At the End of the Night” was the big winner of the night, grabbing three awards, including the best series, the best script (Ida Panahandeh and Arsalan Amiri), and the best drama actor (Parsa Pirouzfar).

Saman Moghaddam won the best director award for “Viper of Tehran” and Zhila Shahi won the best drama actress award for “Dariush”.

Ghodratollah Izadi (You Only Go Around Once) and Sogol Khaligh (The Notebook) won the best male and female comedian awards respectively.

This year’s ceremony was organized by Ali Moallem’s wife Azar Memarian and his son Omid like the past six years.

Launched in 1997, the Hafez Awards is an annual awarding ceremony that is held to honor cinematic achievements in Iranian cinema. It is the biggest cinema and television event organized by the private sector in Iran.

The ceremony is named “Hafez” after the Iranian great poet. The award is a typographical statue resembling the Persian written form of the word “Hafez”.

Photo: Mehran Modiri (L) and Ehsan Alikhani hold their awards at the closing ceremony of the 23rd Hafez Awards in Tehran, on November 23, 2024.

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