TEHRAN-The 36th Festival of Films from Iran began in Chicago, the U.S., on Friday, showing some of the highlights of Iranian cinema presented at the Gene Siskel Film Center - during the festival and year round - in the last 36 years.

The festival has selected award-winning films as well as films from globally renowned directors to show at its current edition, ISNA reported.

The lineup includes “The Sealed Soil” by Marva Nabili (1977), “Close Up” directed by Abbas Kiarostami (1990), “Leila” by Dariush Mehrjui (1997), “Children of Heaven” by Majid Majidi (1997), “A Separation” by Asghar Farhadi (2011), and “Starless Dreams” by Mehrdad Oskouei (2016).

Now as the festival gears up to conclude its third decade, the organizers are nostalgic for these momentous years of this groundbreaking festival and of a selection of the films that have defined the last 36 years of Iranian cinema. In an ever-shifting cinematic landscape, and in a volatile time for Iran, the festival looks back in homage, while simultaneously looking forward in anticipation.

The Festival of Films from Iran was founded in 1989 and continues as a yearly showcase that spotlights the innovation, resilience, and humanism of contemporary Iranian filmmakers and acclaimed Iranian auteurs. The festival serves as a window to Iran and its political, social, and cultural world, forming and challenging audiences' perceptions of Iran, while also building a richer understanding of the country and its cinema.

The Gene Siskel Film Center is Chicago’s premier art house cinema in the heart of the theater district, bringing film lovers together for an unparalleled movie-going experience. It presents a curated collection of eclectic international, independent, and classic cinema with festivals and year-round programming while striving to provide a welcoming space reflective of Chicago’s diverse community. As a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Film Center fosters dialogue that sets films in historical and cultural context through panels, lectures, and filmmaker conversations.

Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting-edge cinema to an annual audience of 100,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful, provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists. Altogether, the Film Center hosts over 1,600 screenings and 200 filmmaker appearances every year. The Film Center was renamed the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2000 after the late, nationally celebrated film critic, Gene Siskel.

After a week of screening glorious Iranian films, this year’s edition of the Festival of Films from Iran will conclude on February 13.

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