TEHRAN – Ashkan Rahgozar, director of the acclaimed Iranian movie “The Last Fiction”, has been selected as a member of the jury at the 7th Thessaloniki Animation Festival in Greece.

He is scheduled to hold a masterclass at the festival, Hoorakhsh, Rahgozar’s animation studio in Tehran, has announced.

He will discuss the topic “How Hoorakhsh Studio started from Iran and expanded beyond borders” at the masterclass.

Teddy Grouya, Tassos Kotsiras, Piotr Michalowski, Michael Kalopaidis, Harry Ravelomanatsoa, G Beaudin, Debra Wootton and Alexia Melocchi are the other members of the jury.

The members will also hold masterclasses on different topics during the online festival, which is currently underway in Thessaloniki.  

The TAF reviews Taiwanese animation cinema this year through a collaboration with the TIAF - Taichang Animation Festival.

Rahgozar was also a member of the jury of the Fantasia International Film Festival, which took place in Montreal, Canada in August.

The Fantasia festival also promoted Rahgozar’s new project “Juliet & the King”, which is under production at his Tehran-based studio Hoorakhsh.

The animation features an early cultural relation between Iran and the West during the nineteenth century when Nasser ad-Din Shah, the long-serving monarch of the Qajar dynasty, receives an invitation to visit France.

He loves Europe and he always makes use of an opportunity to visit there. While visiting a Romeo-Juliet play in Paris, an actress catches his eyes. He falls in love with her so deeply that he asks her to perform the same play in Tehran, so he could impress her and win her heart. 

Julie, the actress, decides to take this chance. With the help of her friend Jamal, she goes to perform in Iran, anticipating progress in her career. But she suddenly finds herself among jealous court ladies, and the center of the king’s attention.

The film, which is scheduled to premiere in 2023, portrays Qajar kings’ passion for traveling to Europe in the 19th century, focusing on the cultural relations between Iran and France.

Rakgozar’s first animated feature “The Last Fiction” became the first Iranian animation to qualify for an Oscar in 2020.

Photo: Director Ashkan Rahgozar in an undated photo. 

MMS/YAW