TEHRAN – The 24th film and television ceremony of Picture World Magazine (also known as Hafez Awards) announced the winners on Saturday in a ceremony held at the Rose Mall Cineplex in Tehran.

The event presented awards to the best of Iranian cinema and television during the past year, IRNA reported.

The feature drama “The Old Bachelor” written and directed by Oktay Baraheni was the big winner of the night, grabbing four awards.

Competing in the Cinema section, the movie won the awards for Best Film (for producers Babak Hamidian and Hanif Soroori), Best Director (Baraheni), Best Actor (Hassan Pourshirazi), and Best Cinematography (Adib Sobhani).

The veteran actor Pourshirazi received the award jointly with Shahab Hosseini for his performance in “Raha”.

The best actress award was shared by Parinaz Izadyar for her role in “Woman and Child” and Ghazal Shakeri for “Raha”.

Ali Zarnegar grabbed the award for the Best Screenplay for “Cause of Death: Unknown” and the Best Editing award was presented to Mohammadreza Moeini for “Instinct”.

After the death of the globally renowned filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in 2016, a special prize was added to the ceremony awards in his honor, to be given to a young, innovative filmmaker since Kiarostami was known as an auteur for his creative works.

This year, the Abbas Kiarostami Statuette was given to filmmaker Aliyar Rasti for his first feature film “The Great Yawn of History”.

The veteran cinematographer, screenwriter, director, and photographer Mahmoud Kalari received the Lifetime Achievement Award for decades of activity in Iranian cinema.

In the TV section, Amir Hossein Ghiasi was recognized as the most popular TV figure for his comedy talk show “Midnight”.

“The Savage” produced by Mohammadreza Saberi and directed by Houman Seyyedi won the Best Series and the Best Director awards.

“Tasian” written and directed by Tina Pakravan received the Best Writing as well as the award for the Best Drama Actor for Babak Hamidian and the Best Production Design for Iraj Raminfar.

Behnoush Tabatabaie and Alireza Ghorbani won the Best Drama Actress and Best Song awards, respectively, both for “Savushun”.

The best Male and Female Comedian awards went to Reza Attaran and Elika Abdolrazzaghi, respectively, both for “A Delayed Death”.

This year’s ceremony was organized by Ali Moallem’s wife Azar Memarian and his son Omid, like the past seven years.

Launched in 1997, the Hafez Awards is an annual awarding ceremony that is held to honor cinematic achievements in Iranian cinema. It is the biggest cinema and television event organized by the private sector in Iran.

The ceremony is named “Hafez” after the great Iranian poet. The award is a typographical statue resembling the Persian written form of the word “Hafez”.

SS/SAB