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Filmmaking in Iran

AP Images
Iranian actress Leila Hatami, and actor Peyman Moadi, act in a scene of the movie "A Separation," which won this year's Academy Award in the foreign film category.

This has been an eventful year when it comes to Iranian filmmakers.  

First, Iran’s Culture Ministry formally dissolved the House of Cinema, the only domestic organization that supports independent film. The ministry replaced the House of Cinema with a committee that would not deviate from strict Islamic guidelines and politically permissible topics.

Then, an independently produced Iranian film, “A Separation,” won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The film, which was directed by Asghar Farhadi, depicts the breakup of a marriage, and is not considered a political film.

Also this year, Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker under house arrest, was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

To find out more about the dynamics of Iranian filmmaking inside and outside of the country, Global Journalist spoke to Negar Mottahedeh. Negar is an Associate Professor of Literature and Women’s Studies at Duke University, and the author of Displaced Allegories: Post-revolutionary Iranian Cinema.

View an interactive timeline about cinema and censorship in Iran.

Rehman Tungekar is a former producer for KBIA, who left at the beginning of 2014.