TEHRAN -- Workers are fastening the last banners and flags of the most prestigious Iranian film gala as the 25th Fajr International Film Festival is about to open at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall today.

This year’s festival is happening concurrently with the mourning season for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) and organizers have scheduled a special opening ceremony which will commemorate the Ashura event.

Several short films featuring Iranian cineastes discussing the effects of the event on Iranian art and culture are slated to be screened on the first day of the festival, opening ceremony director Manuchehr Mohammadi said on Wednesday.

Three plays on the theme of Ashura will also be staged by Mohammad Rahmanian during the ceremony.

In addition, organizers plan to present a filmmaker the Moustapha Akkad Award, which is named after the Syrian-born Hollywood director of the acclaimed film “Muhammad, Messenger of God”, and to screen “Talking with the Green Dome”, a short film directed by Reza Mirkarimi, to commemorate the Year of the Great Prophet Muhammad (S).

The current Iranian calendar year was named the Year of the Great Prophet Muhammad (S) by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Sixty-one countries will be represented at the festival and 240 feature-length, documentary, and short films will be screened in competitive and non-competitive sections of the event, which will run until February 11.

In addition, the festival will also be holding a film market offering the latest productions of 47 countries at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults from February 4 to 8.