TEHRAN -- Over 40 countries are slated to participate in the 23rd International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults, to be held from August 2 to 6 in Hamedan.

A total of 162 foreign films and animations will go on screen at this edition of the gala, festival secretary Akbar Nabavi mentioned during a press conference Sunday.
For the first time in this edition, animations will be separated from films and participating animations will be awarded with four special prizes, two of which will be dedicated to Iranian films, he mentioned.
At the subsidiary section of the festival, sections are dedicated to children’s cinema of members of ECO, thirty years of Iran’s children cinema, the most favorite movie paintings of history, the puppeteers of children’s programs as well as Scandinavian children.
A section is also dedicated to computer games but it is non-competitive in this edition, he said.
“We also asked children all over the world to depict their ideas about their films in the form of paintings which they will send to secretariat of the gala,” he said.
He went on to say that an exhibition of paintings will be held in 24th edition and the selected artworks will be awarded during that gala.
On the sidelines of this edition of the festival, several meetings will be held reviewing Iranian children’s cinema with Iranian children’s cineastes, authors, teachers and educational experts, he said.
The scholars will deliver lectures during these meetings which will be published in the form of a book. The summer edition of the Farabi Cinematic Quarterly contains 30 interviews with children cinema experts, he said.
Sponsored by the Farabi Cinematic Foundation (FCF), renowned filmmakers including Puran Derakhshandeh, Masud Keramati, Gholamreza Ramezani and Mehran Rasam are making films for children which probably will take part in the festival.
“Iran’s children cinema experienced a golden era about 17 years ago during which brilliant children’s films were produced in Iran but unfortunately this era did not continue,” he lamented.
He called the decline of production of children’s films and their screening following these years as one of his most important concerns about Iran’s cinema.
Photo: Secretary of the 23rd International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults Akbar Nabavi (R) and FCF Public Relations Office Director Habib Ilbeigi attend a press conference on June 7, 2009 to explain the programs of the festival, which will be held from August 2 to 6 in Hamedan.