TEHRAN -- Cartoonists from 62 countries will compete at the 3rd edition of the International City Complexities Cartoon Contest.

A total of 767 cartoons depicting complex issues faced by cities will compete in the upcoming edition of the contest, announced the secretary of the festival Masud Shojaei-Tabatabaii in a press conference on Tuesday.
Air pollution, urban traffic, unstructured expansion of urban areas, street children and beggars are the main themes of this edition of the festival, he mentioned.
Shojaei-Tabatabaii called cartoons the influential and international art language. “The themes of festivals are universal problems citizens face in different parts of the world,” he added.
The names of the 767 final cartoons selected from the 1724 submitted were announced on the Irancartoon website, he said.
He went on to say that 164 Iranian cartoonists will compete at the contest. Some 52 artists from Turkey, 41 cartoonists from Indonesia, 35 artists from China and 35 Brazilian cartoonists will also compete at the event.
Iranian cartoonists Abolfazl Mohtarami, Firuzeh Mozaffari, Bahram Arjomandnia and Tuka Neyestani judged the work submitted to the contest.
The contest will be held during Ten Day Dawn celebrations held annually from February 1 to 11 in commemoration of the anniversary of the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Cosponsored by Iran’s Cartoon House and the Art and Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality, the contest will be held at the Honar Cultural Center.
Photo: Poster of the 2nd International City Complexities Cartoon Contest, which was held in October 2009 in Tehran