The Noor Iranian Film Festival is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

held in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, founded by cultural producer Siamak Ghahremani and co-founder Anthony Azizi in 2007. The festival's namesake comes from the word Nur, also spelled Noor, meaning to shed light or "noor," on Iranian culture and heritage through

Iranian cinema The Cinema of Iran ( Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame ...

. A non-profit, non-religious, and non-political organization, the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) was created to shed light, or ‘noor,’ on Persian culture, helping to express the beauty of a culture that is commonly misperceived due to its portrayal in the media. Additional to the main annual festival in Los Angeles, a tour of the program has made several return trips to cities such as

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

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San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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, and

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

The

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

festival has been held at such venues as the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA Campus, Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

and Magnin Auditorium at the

Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing e ...

. It has taken place every year since 2007, with the exception of 2010, where due to Iran's political uprising in 2010, and out of respect for the people in Iran, the festival decided to postpone its 4th festival to 2011. The postponement was also due to a lack of sponsorship and seed money for the festival.

Programming

The program blocks have included feature films, documentaries, short films and animated films, all of which were selected to shed light on Iranian culture and heritage. Their submission guidelines for filmmakers state: "NIFF accepts films from Iranian filmmakers, films made about Iran or Iranians, and/or films that include Iranians as part of the cast or crew."

Judges

1st Annual Noor Film Festival Judges * Natasha Henstridge,

Maz Jobrani Maziyar Jobrani ( fa, مازیار جبرانی; born February 26, 1972) is an American comedian and actor who was part of the "Axis of Evil" comedy group. The group appeared on a comedy special on Comedy Central. Jobrani has also appeared in n ...

Harry Lennix Harry Joseph Lennix III (born November 16, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Terrence "Dresser" Williams in the Robert Townsend film ''The Five Heartbeats'' (1991) and as Boyd Langton in the science-fiction series ''Dollh ...

Shaun Toub Shaun Toub ( fa, شان توب ; ; born February 15, 1958) is an Iranian-born American actor. He has played the character Yinsen in '' Iron Man'' (2008) and ''Iron Man 3'' (2013); Farhad in ''Crash'' (2004); Rahim Khan in ''The Kite Runner'' (2 ...

Kyle Secor Kyle Ivan Secor (born May 31, 1957) is an American television and film actor. He is known for portraying Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999). Early years Secor was born in Tacoma, Wash ...

2nd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges *

Shohreh Aghdashloo Shohreh Aghdashloo ( fa, شهره آغداشلو, ; née Vaziri-Tabar (); 11 May 1952) is an Iranian and American actress. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in '' Chess of the Wind'' (1976). Her next two fi ...

, Reza Badiyi,

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Em ...

Omid Djalili Omid Djalili ( fa, امید جلیلی; born 30 September 1965) is a British actor, comedian and writer. Early life and education Djalili was born on 30 September 1965 in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Baháʼí parents. He attended Holland Park ...

Ever Carradine Ever Dawn Carradine is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series ''Once and Again'' and '' Commander in Chief'', respectively and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hulu ...

3rd Annual Noor Film Festival Judges * Brooke Adams,

Esai Morales Esai Manuel Morales Jr. (born October 1, 1962) is an American actor. He has had notable roles in the films '' Bad Boys'' with Sean Penn and '' La Bamba'' with Lou Diamond Phillips (1987). His television roles include the PBS 2002 drama series '' ...

Habib Zargarpour Habib Zargarpour (born 9 March 1964) is an Iranian visual effects supervisor, computer graphics supervisor, art director and creative director. Zargarpour worked on the films ''Twister (1996 film), Twister'' (1996) and ''The Perfect Storm (fil ...

Rudi Bakhtiar Rudabeh Bakhtiar ( fa, رودابه بختیار, born 21 June 1966), better known as Rudi Bakhtiar, is an Iranian-American journalist and television producer. She is a producer for Reuters in Washington, D.C. She is best known for anchoring '' ...

, Ali Pourtash 4th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges *

Corey Feldman Corey Scott Feldman (born July 16, 1971) is an American actor and musician. As a youth, he became well known for roles in the 1980s in films such as '' Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter'' (1984), ''Gremlins'' (1984), ''The Goonies'' (1985), a ...

, Kami Asgar,

Max Martini Maximilian Carlo Martini (born December 11, 1969) is an American actor, writer, and director known for his roles as Corporal Fred Henderson in '' Saving Private Ryan'', Wiley in '' Level 9'', First Sergeant Sid Wojo in '' The Great Raid'', and a ...

Bai Ling Bai Ling (, born October 10, 1966) is a Chinese-American actress known for her work in the films ''The Crow'', ''Nixon'', ''Red Corner'', '' Crank: High Voltage'', ''Dumplings'', ''Wild Wild West'', ''Anna and the King'', ''Southland Tales'', and ...

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

5th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges *

Navid Negahban Navid Negahban ( fa, نوید نگهبان; born June 2, 1968) is an Iranian-American actor. He has appeared on '' 24'', ''Homeland'', '' Mistresses'' and as Amahl Farouk / Shadow King in the second and third seasons of FX's ''Legion''. He has al ...

, Homa Sarshar,

Behrouz Vossoughi Khalil Vossoughi ( fa, خلیل وثوقی; born 11 March 1938) known professionally as Behrouz Vossoighi (بهروز وثوقی), is an Iranian actor. He has also worked in television, radio and theater. His work has earned him recognition at ...

Tony Plana José Antonio Plana (born April 19, 1952) is a Cuban actor and director. He is known for playing Betty Suarez's father, Ignacio Suarez, on the ABC television show ''Ugly Betty'' and for voicing Manuel "Manny" Calavera in the video game ''Grim ...

Kristoff St. John Kristoff St. John (July 15, 1966 – February 3, 2019) was an American actor best known for playing Neil Winters on the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' from 1991 until his death in 2019, which earned him two Daytime Emmy A ...

6th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges *

Marshall Manesh Marshall Manesh (born August 16, 1950) is an Iranian-American actor. Biography When Manesh was young, his father died; he was raised by his mother, from whom he feels he got his strength to make it in show business. He went to the United S ...

Dennis Haysbert Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...

, Faraj Heidari 7th Annual Noor Film Festival Judges *

Omid Abtahi Omid Abtahi ( fa, امید ابطحی) is an Iranian-American actor. noorfilmfestival.com Accessed 2016-1-28 He is best known for his roles as Salim in Starz Original ''American Gods'', Doctor Pershing in ''The Mandalorian'' on Disney+, Saleem U ...

Mahnaz Afshar Mahnaz Afshar ( fa, مهناز افشار; born June 10, 1977) is an Iranian actress. She gained wide recognition in the record-breaking film ''Cease Fire'' (2006). She has received various accolades, including a Crystal Cymorgh, two Hafez Awar ...

Catherine Dent Catherine Grace Dent (born April 14, 1965) is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Danielle "Danny" Sofer in the FX series ''The Shield'', Janet Anderson in '' Outcast'' (2016–2018), and General Hale in ''Agents of S.H.I. ...

8th Annual Noor Film Festival judges * Reza Sixo Safai, Mozhan Marno,

Ayat Najafi Ayat Najafi ( fa, آیت نجفی, born 23 September 1976) is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. He has received many international awards from the Berlin International Film Festival and Outfest for "Football Under Cover" and also Montreal ...

Awards

Additional to judged awards for films screened at the festival, the event selects honorary recipients with a career achievement award. In 2013 the festival announced that the Achievement Award would be renamed the Reza Badiyi Achievement Award, in honor of the director/producer Reza Badiyi, recipient of the festival's first Achievement Award in 2009.

Achievement Awards

Film Awards

2007

2008

2009

2011

2012

2013

2014 2016

References

{{Reflist

External links

Noor Iranian Film Festival - Official Website - noorfilmfestival.comNew side - Siamak Qahramani
Cinema of Iran Iranian-American culture Iranian-American culture in Los Angeles Film festivals in Los Angeles Film festivals established in 2007