TEHRAN -- Winners of the 5th Bismillah Festival were announced in a ceremony held at the Niavaran Cultural Center on Wednesday evening.

A group of artists, as well as the head of Tehran’s Az-Zahra University, and several numbers of Tehran’s Parliament attended the ceremony.
Head of the scientific council of the festival, Mohammadreza Kamarei, gave the opening speech and said that about 4,000 works from across the globe were submitted to the secretariat of the festival of which 149 entered the competition section. He added, “The final winners’ list included 14 top works from the different sections of poster, and logotype with the themes of Bismillah and Asma-ul-Hosna, and the name of Prophet Muhammad (S) receiving awards.
“Several works from different countries of Pakistan, Lebanon, Azerbaijan Republic, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan were submitted to the secretariat,” Kamarei added.
Secretary of the gala, Fereidun Mardani, was the next to speak and said that the festival is organized to find young talented artists, and to help introduce spiritual art in international programs.
“This festival,a non-governmental event, has been able to attract about 4,000 artists this year and tries to provide facilities for youth to establish connections with professional artists from around the world,” he remarked.
Afterwards, the winners were presented with awards. In the poster section, no works merited a prize, however, Roqiyeh Bavafa from Tehran, as well as Mohammad Rashidifar and Mehdi Dezfulinejad from Ahvaz, received honorable mention.
Zahar Taqvaii from Qazvin, Hamidreza Qodsi from Tehran and Mohsen Jafari from Mashhad received honorable mention in the logotype section,
In addition, Fatemeh Eslami-Ketabchi from Gilan, Mostafa Seyyed Ebrahimi from Qom and Ali Masum-Beigi from Mashhad received honorable mention in the side section of logo design of the name of Prophet Muhammad (S).
At the logotype section, first prize went to Mohammad-Hossein Rezaii from Bojnurd, second prize went to Aqil Kamel-Narestan from Mashhad, and third prize went to Nasir Bashiri.
Several participating works from Pakistan also received prizes, which were handed over to Pakistan’s cultural attaché was who participating in the ceremony.
In addition, the winners will be awarded with a research trip to a European country.
A selection of works has been put on display at the exhibit, which opened on September 17 at the Niavaran Cultural Center and will run for four days.