Selection Committee Announcement

We are delighted to present the 1st London Iranian Film Festival Selection Committee. UKIFF would like to thank all the members for their dedication and commitment in ensuring they select the best of Iranian cinema for the Festival.

The Festival Team

www.ukiff.org.uk

Film

Kamran Shirdel (Head of Film Selection Committee)

Documentarian

Considered a pioneer of Iran's NEW cinema. Born in born 1939 in Tehran, he studied architecture, urbanism, and design at the University of Rome and film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. After graduating in 1964, he worked as an assistant director with John Huston on The Bible before making his diploma film, Gli Specchi (The Mirrors), in Rome. He returned to Iran and started his career in 1965. Throughout his career he received numerous awards in many international festivals, including the Life Achievement Award during the Lebanese DOCUDAYS in November of 2003.

In 2000 Shirdel founded the Kish International Documentary Film Festival, the only independent film festival in Iran, which was held every year in the January in Kish Island in the Persian Gulf until 2006. He is also the managing director of Filmgrafic Co. He has been a member of selection committees and jury in many international festivals around the world.

Kamran Shirdel's profile on Nysiff

Patrick Tucker

Screen Director

An internationally acclaimed stage and screen director. He studied physics at the University of London, and theatre directing at the Boston University. Tucker has directed more than 200 theatre productions in the UK and abroad. Since he was accepted by the BBC Television Directing program in 1976 Tucker has directed more than 150 television dramas.

He is renowned for developing a unique approach to television and film acting as a separate discipline, and has lectured and taught all over the world. In the 1990s together with his actor partner Christine Ozanne he founded an innovative theatre company the Original Shakespeare Company. He is also the author of seven books including the award-winning Secrets of Screen Acting and The Actor's Survival Handbook.

Patrick Tucker's profile on Friendly Folio

Zoran Veljkovic

Cinematographer

Classically trained in Eastern Europe where he studied cinematography with leading European filmmakers.

A Director of photography since 1985, Veljkovic has shot films which have won prestigious awards at festivals in the US, Italy, Spain, Japan, Holland and Yugoslavia.

He has worked with directors such as Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors) on his new award winning film Dangerous Parking. Veljkovic’s work includes feature films, dramas, promos and commercials.

Zoran Veljkovic's profile on Imdb

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Filmmaker

Born in 1971 in Iran. Mirtahmasb studied Visual Art and Handicrafts at the University of Art in Tehran and became an active filmmaker in the 1990s.

His works include documents, shorts and video clips that provide an insight into modern art and life in Iran.

Mirtahmasb is Head of the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers’ Association (IRDFA), member of Society of Motion Pictures Sound Recordists of Iran and European Documentary Network (EDN).

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb's profile on Anthropology

Image and Illustration

Seifollah Samadian

Photographer

He was born in Tehran in 1954. Samadian is the Publisher and Editor-in-chief of ''Tassvir'' magazine, Iran's foremost publication on Photography. He is also profressor of Photojournalism at the University of Tehran.

Khosrojerdi has participated in numerous international exhibitions including a solo show in London in 2009. He has received various awards including the Grand Prize of the Sharjah Biennial in 2001. Samadian's own work as a photographer became popular as part of a wave of Iranian photography that emerged on the Iranian art scene at the end of the 1980s. He has worked as a close collaborator of internationally acclaimed film directors including Abbas Kiarostami.

Seifollah Samadian's profile on Muslim Voices

Hossein Khosrojerdi (Image and Illustration Contest Jury)

Artist

One of the leading contemporary Iranian artists.

He was born in 1957 in Tehran and educated at the Beaux Arts School of Tehran, from which he graduated in 1976. He also studied at the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University, from which he received a degree in 1985.

Khosrojerdi has participated in numerous international exhibitions including a solo show in London in 2009. He has received various awards including the Grand Prize of the Sharjah Biennial in 2001. He has also been a jury member at numerous arts events and exhibitions around the world, including an international cartoon exhibition.

Hossein Khosrojerdi's profile on Tavoos Online