TEHRAN-The 22nd film and television ceremony of Picture World Magazine (also known as Hafez Awards) was held in Tehran on Saturday and the best of cinema and series were awarded.

At the beginning of the program, noted actor, screenwriter and stage director Behzad Farahani was honored for a lifetime of artistic career in performing arts and received the Hafez Statuette, Mehr reported Saturday.

Farahani, 78, is a graduate of dramatic arts. He began his acting career in theater and joined cinema in 1978. He has performed numerous plays and series for radio and television, and has played in several movies over the past six decades.

In commending Farahani, veteran screenwriter, playwright and director Mohammad Rahmanian took to the stage. “Many works such as Masoud Kimiai’s “Journey of the Stone” would not be created without Farahani as an actor, writer and director,” Rahmanian said.

“Journey of the Stone” was Farahani’s first work as a screenwriter in cinema, which he wrote in 1978.

“He introduced and trained many actors including Parviz Parastui. Without Farahani, a major part of the history of dramatic arts would not be formed in Iran,” Rahmanian added.

Responding to his words and the audience applause, Farahani said: “Thank you all. I thought a lot about what to say here and I will read a few verses of a ghazal from Hafez”.

He also spoke about Ali Moallem, the late founder and previous editor of Picture World Magazine who established the Hafez Awards in mid 90s. After organizing 16 editions of the ceremony, Moallem passed away in 2017.

“Ali Moallem was a very honest and brave person. He was very pure-hearted. I am really delighted to be a part of this celebration,” Farahani noted.

Prize winners

The next part of the event was dedicated to presenting awards to the winners of different categories.

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 Ali Behrad for his film “Imagine”.

Among the other winners were Pejman Jamshidi (Grassland) and Bahram Afshari (Fossil) who won the best actor award.

The best actress award went to two actresses Elnaz Shakerdoost (Titi) and Sadaf Espahbodi (Grassland).

Ida Panahandeh was the winner of the best director award for “Titi” and the best film and best script awards went to “Conjugal Visit”.

The special jury award went to the horror drama “Zalava” by Arsalan Amiri.

TV Section Awardees

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

Adel Ferdosipour was recognized as the most popular TV figure for his “Football Show 360”.

The drama series “The Lion Skin” received four awards including the best series, the best script and the best drama actor for Alireza Kamali. It also jointly won the best director award for Jamshid Mahmoudi along with Nima Javidi for the series (Actor).

Hoda Zeinolabedin won the best drama actress award for “Set Me Free”.

Mehran Ghafourian (Blue Nissan) and Roya Afshar (Antenna) won the best male and female comedian respectively.

A special award was also given to “Once Upon a Time in Iran” by Tina Pakravan.

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

Launched in 1997, the Hafez Awards is an annual awarding ceremony which 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 Persian written form of the word “Hafez”.

Photo: Pejman Jamshidi (L) and Adel Ferdosipour were among the winners.

SS/