TEHRAN – The Fajr Film Festival announced on Thursday that winners at the 38th edition of the event will be awarded Crystal Simorghs made by domestic artisans.

In a call published during August, the festival asked Iranian companies to send their plans for making the Crystal Simorghs in the country, and the organizers finally made a deal with a company to produce the trophies, the deputy director of the festival, Ezzatollah Alizadeh, said.

Earlier in January 2019, the organizers of the 37th of edition of the most important film event in Iran came under fierce criticism from some Persian media after Alizadeh announced that the crystal trophies were being made by a workshop based in Dubai.

Afterwards, the director of the Fajr Film Festival, Ebrahim Darughezadeh, said that making the crystal statues requires some costly specialized equipment available abroad and it is not economical for a manufacturer to import the apparatus to make a limited number of the trophies.

Mohammad-Ali Qanbari, the director of the Glassware and Mirror Manufacturers Union, confirmed Darughezadeh’s remarks.

The Crystal Simorgh is a rectangular crystal plate bearing an engraving of a simorgh, a mythical bird in Iranian culture. The trophy has undergone minor and major changes in the design over its 37 years of history. 

A major change came in 2013, when the crystal plate was transformed into a crystal statue of a simorgh designed by veteran Iranian artist Ebrahim Haqiqi.

A Czech artisan created 50 copies based on the design in Bohemia, a major center for crystal and glass objects in the Czech Republic. However, the result was not satisfactory.

Haqiqi revised the design and the festival honored winners with the hand-made crystal statues for two years.

Due to the flimsy construction of the crystal statues, the organizers of the festival later restored the award to its former design.

Photo: A winner holds his Crystal Simorgh during the closing ceremony of during the 37th Fajr Film Festival at Tehran’s Milad Tower on February 11, 2019.  

MMS/YAW