TEHRAN-The 6th edition of the 5 Film & Photo Awards has announced the members of the jury for the film section.

The jury team includes well-known national and international figures. The deadline for receiving the submissions is August 11. The evaluation of works will begin on August 12, and the winners will be announced in October, Mehr reported.

Turkish director Gülten Taranc is the international secretary of the festival. In 2016, she directed and produced her first independent feature film, “Wish to Wash in Rains”, and received the Audience Award at the 53rd Antalya Film Festival. “Snails” was awarded the “Meeting on The Bridge Award” in 2021; also selected for the 2nd round of consideration for the 2022 “Development Track” in Sundance Film Lab. She is the founder and director of the “International Women Filmmakers Festival (IWFF TURKEY)”.

The jury of the film section comprises 13 jurors. The chairwoman of the jury is the Japanese filmmaker Naoko Tajima. The team includes four figures from Iran, namely, cinematographers Touraj Aslani and Hooman Behmanesh, actress Setareh Eskandari, and documentary filmmaker Mahvash Sheikholeslami.

The rest of the jurors are filmmaker Mircea Sorin Albutiu and editor Maria Bălănean from Romania, producer Cihan Aslı Filiz and director Aysim Turkmen from Turkey, British filmmaker Andrew Robert Thomas, Serbian director Maša Nešković, and Austrian filmmaker Markus Berger.

Naoko Tajima studied filmmaking at London Film School and started her career in Tokyo, Japan. She has directed more than 300 TVCs, films, branded content, and music videos.

Her past works as director and cinematographer has been selected and awarded at various film and advertising festivals such as Cannes Film Festival “Best European Shorts”, Hollywood Film Festival, Moondance Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival, Moving Pictures International Film Festival, Honolulu Film Festival, Fuji Sankei Group Advertising Award, Nihon Television Advertising Award, CCN Award, ACC Awards, and many more.

Touraj Aslani has graduated in graphics from Kermanshah Conservatory and in film directing from Tehran Sooreh University.

He began to take photographs at the age of 10, and at the age of 14, he started his activities as an experimental cinematographer with an 8mm camera. He started his professional activities at age 25. He has been shooting more than 100 documentary, short, animation, fiction, and experimental movies. In 2000, he became the youngest professional photographer in Iranian cinema.

Hooman Behmanesh is a graduate of cinema directing from Soore University of Isfahan. He began his artistic career as a teenager and made several short films and edited or produced some. He has also served as assistant director on several films.

Finally, it was in 2006 that he began his independent career as a director of photography. Behmanesh is now regarded as one of the most experienced directors of photography in Iranian cinema. He is also a member of the Iranian Cinema Short Film Association, the National Elite Foundation of Iran, and the Asian Pacific Academy of Motion Picture Science and Technology.

Setareh Eskandari started her artistic activity in 1993 in company with students of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran.  She has performed in several films, plays, and TV series.

She served as a judge at the 22nd Pune International Film Festival in India in 2023, following the screening of her directorial debut “The Sun of That Moon” at various international festivals. The film received critical acclaim for addressing significant issues such as women’s rights, life experiences, and Baloch culture.

Mahvash Sheikholeslami graduated from the London Film School. Throughout her professional career, she has played a significant role in the Iranian film industry, working as a producer and deputy producer on numerous films and television series.

She has collaborated with renowned filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Nasser Taghvai, Ali Hatami, Dariush Mehrjui, and others. Since 1996, Sheikholeslami has been making her own independent films, focusing on cultural heritage, environmental issues, and women’s stories. She is a permanent member of the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Guild.

Mircea Sorin Albutiu has a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking. He has directed three documentaries.

Maria Bălănean graduated in film editing and sound design in 2014. Over the last 10 years, she has edited documentaries that were screened at many festivals such as Vision du Reel or Ji.hlava IDFF.

In 2017, she joined a master's program in visual anthropology, during which she directed her first documentary, Triplex Confinium, which was screened at several festivals and was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the Romanian Film Awards (Gopo) in 2022.

Cihan Aslı Filiz was selected as an international producer for Cannes MIPTV’s Producers to Watch catalogue in 2022. She was also part of the Berlinale Co-Production Market selection committee in 2020 and 2021.

She has produced numerous internationally acclaimed films. She has also produced works for Amazon Prime Video. Currently, she is developing film and series projects at Bir Film as a creative producer.

Aysim Turkmen attended the New School Film Program while she made the short film “Just Like Today” in New York. In Istanbul, she made award-winning documentaries, especially concerning urban issues.

She is on the advisory board of the International Women Filmmakers Festival, İzmir. She is the coordinator of the festival’s “Creating Characters from Izmir” section, in which filmmaking workshops as well as international masterclasses are organized. She is the founding member of Filmperest, Script Development Group. She’s currently working on her feature-length fiction film “Peekaboo” as well as the documentary film “Suburbia Underground” (both films have been funded by the Cinema Production Fund of the Turkish Ministry of Culture).

Andrew Robert Thomas has been involved in international creative production spanning the film, television, advertising, and publishing industries for over 30 years. He has established a production & management company, Creative Hybrid, working with the finest international creative talents.

Maša Nešković holds a degree in film directing and a Ph.D. in polymedia art. She has directed short fiction films, short and mid-length documentaries, and a feature film, “Asymmetry”, which were screened and won awards at international film festivals.

She has directed three prime-time TV series, a documentary series for Vice TV, the “Serbia’s Got Talent” show, “The X Factor Serbia” show, and several music videos. In addition to her directing work, Maša works as a 1st AD and casting director on films and TV series with both local and international crews.

Markus Berger is an animation filmmaker and visual effects artist, with expertise also in sound design and immersive media, including virtual and augmented reality. After earning his master’s degree in digital arts from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria, Markus moved to Izmir, Türkiye, where he has been a faculty member at Dokuz Eylül University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in the Department of Cartoon and Animation since 2014. In addition to his teaching role, he recently completed his PhD in Arts and Design at Dokuz Eylül University.

Throughout his career, Markus has directed several short animated, fiction, and documentary films. He also has experience as an on-set sound mixer and visual effects supervisor, contributing to a range of professional feature-length and short film projects.

The 5 Photo & Film Award is a prestigious and large festival for film and photography. It supports artists from all over the world, especially independent and modern artists, and seeks to create a bridge between different countries and cultures.

It is inspired by a 500-year-old tree located in the village of Aro, in the suburb of Damavand, Tehran Province. This tree has been the subject of photographs by international director and photographer Abbas Kiarostami every year in different seasons for many years. His photographs have been exhibited under the title “Snow White” in world-renowned galleries such as the Center Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

Six years ago, documentary photographer and filmmaker Mehdi Shadizadeh photographed this tree again and founded the festival to celebrate this cultural and iconic symbol, representing Kiarostami’s artistic legacy.

The number “5” is derived from the movie “5” made by Kiarostami, which was made in 2003 and contains five scenes with an average duration of 16 minutes.

SS/SAB