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On National Cinema Day which falls on September 12 this year, Iranian artists, movie fans and officials will hold functions to celebrate the occasion countrywide.
Cinema was first introduced in Iran by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, the fifth Qajar king of Persia, in 1900, and five years after Lumière brothers first created cinematograph in 1985.
Mirza Ebrahim Khan alias 'Akkas Bashi' was the first Persian filmmaker and cameraman. He was the official photographer of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar.
Iranian films have garnered international fame with world-renowned critics from around the world lauding the Iranian cinema as one of the world's most important artistic works.
Over the past three decades, a range of international film festivals have honored Iranian cinema for its distinct style, themes and cultural references.
Iranian film masterpieces continue to attract global attention at prestigious international festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, Academy Awards, the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival.
Firsts of Iranian cinema
The first film produced in Iran, 'Blue and Robbie', was a silent film that was directed in 1930.
Aside from a long list of globally-renowned Iranian directors, actors and actresses and movies artists, many movie critics consider late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami as one of the rare great directors in the history of cinema.
'Taste of Cherry' — a 1997 film by Kiarostami — was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. It was the first film from Iran which was awarded at Cannes festival.
'Separation' is a 2011 Iranian drama written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. 'Separation' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award.
Farhadi won the best Screenplay from the Cannes Film Festival for his another movie, 'The Salesman'. Apart from Asghar Farhadi, Shahab Hosseini also won the Best Actor Award from the Cannes Film Festival.
'Doḵtar-e Lor’ (Lor Girl) was the first film in which the Persian language was heard on the screen. It was produced by Ardeshir Irani and Abdolhossein Sepanta under a Film Company in Bombay. It was made in India with local technicians and Persian actors.
Shahla Riyahi was the first Iranian woman to direct a movie titled 'Marjan' in 1956.
In 1941, some 250 films were screened in Persian, 60 percent from the US, 20 percent from Germany and five percent from France. In the spring 1950, there were eighty cinemas theaters in Persia, of which twenty were open-air summer facilities; the total annual audience was about nine million. Approximately 450 films were distributed each year, 85 percent from the US and the remainder from Great Britain, Egypt, France, Italy, India and Persia.
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