TEHRAN -- The 11th Festival of Student Puppet Theater is facing financial problems, mentioned secretary of the festival Isa Nuri in a press conference on Saturday.

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 the festival.
Although two new sections of Research and Professor have been added to the festival, its budget unfortunately has been reduced to half that of the previous edition, Isa Nuri lamented.
The motto of this edition of the festival is “Universities’ sympathy and cooperation” and all the students have equal rights in the festival, he said.
Nuri went on to say that the festival’s budget was estimated by the secretariat at about 164,000 dollars but the Ministry of Science allocated only 60,000 dollars for the event.
The festival has different sections including Stage Theater, Street Theater, Play Writing and several exhibitions of posters, photos and masks.
The 10th edition of the festival was held in December 2007 and the 11th edition will be held from November 22 to 29, 2009.