Several Iranian musicians have won medals in different categories at the 2022 Global Music Awards. Composer Farhad Harati won a gold medal for his cinematic choral music, “The Sacred Earth”. The album featuring eleven tracks has been recorded with Naamira, a choral ensemble of young musicians, at Zang Records.

In 2021, Harati received a silver medal at the Global Music Awards for “Hidden Beliefs”.

He is the founder of the Naamira Music Academy. Early on, his interest in composing music was more than his interest in playing others’ works.

Proceeding in the field of professional music enabled him to introduce himself as a composer, as he had committed himself to do so.

In addition, his great enthusiasm for the human voice and choral singing led him to found Naamira Choir and produce choral works.

Throughout years, he appeared on the stage by holding numerous concerts to show his musical thoughts. Having trained his voice as a tenor singer, he performed the solo pieces in all his concerts.

Receiving orders and holding concerts for some of the agencies of the United Nation’s office in Iran are among the other successful experiences of the composer.

He always chooses subjects for his compositions by paying careful attention to his surrounding environment and taking a curious look at social anomalies and behaviors.

His strong inclination to producing instrumental music in classical music, epic and word music genres has led this composer, with his transnational outlook, to invite his listeners to a challenge in listening, thinking and creativity in mental fantasies.

Among his credits are the albums “Zero Limitation”, “The Pacific Sun”, “Gray Lone”, “The Lady of Shadows” and “The Silence Season”.

Ahmad Mirmasumi, another Iranian composer, also was awarded silver medals in the composition and sound mixing categories in this year’s gala.

Amir-Hossein Nuri “White Dream” won a bronze medal in the listener impact: motivational/inspirational category, while Hafez Niknafs “Epic No.1” received a bronze medal in the composition section.

Pejman Bolurchi’s “Nature Dance” was also awarded a bronze medal in the music video and instrumentalist categories. /T.T/

Several photo exhibitions will open this week in Tehran to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

A major exhibition will be organized online by the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI).

Entitled “Birth of a Revolution: Islamic Revolution in the Mirror of Non-Iranian Media” can be found at www.nlai.ir/birth-of-revolution.

In a statement, the NLAI referred to the event as the last revolution of the twentieth century, which was very much under the world’s media spotlight.

Consequently, photojournalists from across the globe rushed to Iran to cover this major event. A collection of the photos depicting striking moments of the revolution has been accumulated for the exhibition.

“These photographs are the examples of thousands of photos recorded by international photojournalists for the world’s history,” the statement read.

Michel Setboun, the renowned French photographer who was working for the Sipa Agency, was one of the journalists who visited Iran during the revolution.

His works have been showcased in several exhibitions in Tehran over the past decade.

One of his latest exhibitions was organized at the Imam Khomeini Cultural Center in June 2020 to commemorate the death anniversary of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Another showcase will open physically on Tuesday at Axkhaneh Shahr, Iran’s photo museum in Tehran.

Twenty photographs by renowned photographers, including Kaveh Golestan, have been selected to be put on view at the exhibition entitled “Days of the Revolution”.

As a freelance photographer, Golestan also documented scenes of Iraq’s chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. He was killed by a landmine in Iraq at the age of 51 while working for the BBC.

The exhibit will also showcase works by Abdolhossein Partovi, Mehdi Rezvan, Mohammad Sayyad, Hossein Esmaeili, Abdolazim Mirhashemi, Sadeq Samudi, Qorban Khalili, Mehdi Mirzai and Yadollah Vaziri.

The Palestine Museum of Contemporary Art of the Iranian Academy of Arts will also exhibit 60 photos of the revolution in an online showcase, which will be launched on Monday.

Entitled “Picture of Fajr”, the exhibition will be organized with contributions from the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works. /T.T/

Iran will be placed among the top 10 countries in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2032 based on the national document on artificial intelligence strategy, Shahram Moein, head of innovation and development center of artificial intelligence at the Research Institute of Information and Communication Technology, said.

The study of the national artificial intelligence development roadmap started a year ago at the Research Institute of Information and Communication Technology, which was officially completed by the end of November 2021.

“To draft this document, strategic documents of 23 countries in the field of artificial intelligence were evaluated so that areas such as environment, health, transportation, online education, energy, robotics, industry, agriculture, and security development are among the priority areas of AI.

Among the goals of this document are 80 percent of research to meet the needs of the country, use of 45 percent of artificial intelligence in industries, $8 billion investment in artificial intelligence and a 12 percent share of AI in the GDP,” he explained.

Stating that this document contains 14 macro policies, he said that supporting the AI products, laying the groundwork for the development of this technology, strengthening companies active in this field, and using artificial intelligence in solving super challenges are among these macro policies.

In total, this document contains 47 micro-policies, 39 general actions, and 155 projects and activities, he added.

Iran’s progress in artificial intelligence

Iran is in 13th place among the top countries in artificial intelligence by the total number of publications in 2021, according to the Nature Index database.

The SCImago ranking database at the University of Granada, Spain, ranks countries and universities based on the number of scholarly articles from higher education institutions in the Scopus database. This ranking uses three indicators of research, innovation, and society in combination.

In the 2020 version of SCImago, the subject of artificial intelligence is a subcategory of computer science, which ranks Iran as 15th in the world and first in West Asia.

Also, in cognitive sciences as a subset of psychology, which is one of the disciplines related to artificial intelligence, Iran ranks 36th in the world and third in West Asia.

In electrical and electronic engineering, which has a part of artificial intelligence, Iran is ranked 15th in the world and first in West Asia. T.T/

Iran football team defeated the UAE 1-0 to stay atop of Group A in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification.

On Tuesday, the ‘Persian Leopards’, who have already qualified for the Qatar World Cup, earned a home win in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium behind the closed doors.

With one minute left until halftime, Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh sent in a perfect cross to the area and Ali Gholizadeh hit the bar with a header. Left-footed Mehdi Taremi took advantage of the rebound, putting the home side ahead.

Four minutes into the second half, Iran were reduced to 10 men after Sadegh Moharrami was shown his second yellow card by Omani referee Ahmed Al-Kaf.

It was Dragan Skocic’s 14th win out of 15 matches as Iran coach.

Iran remained top of the group with 22 points, two points ahead of Korea Republic, who defeated Syria 2-0 earlier in the day. /T.T/

Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi-Amin said his ministry has established six new trade centers in other countries to facilitate the trade in the designated markets, the ministry’s news portal reported on Tuesday.

“We have set up six new business centers, as well as two export terminals, which will resolve many challenges, and we had six commercial attaches in destination markets, to which four have been added,” Fatemi-Amin told the national TV.

Mentioning his ministry’s programs for promoting exports and foreign trade, Fatemi-Amin said the exports of engineering and technical services have reached $1.8 billion from the previous year’s $700 million.

According to the official, the return of export revenues into the country has increased by eight percent and 650 cases of barter trade have also been conducted with other countries.

He finally underlined the positive impact of the Industry Ministry’s supportive measures on the country’s non-oil trade, saying that the value of the country’s non-oil exports has currently exceeded $40 billion and the figure is expected to reach $45 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

The government’s economic coordination headquarters recently approved some resolutions for the elimination of some serious export barriers which have been effective in the country’s positive trend of exports, Fatemi-Amin said. /T.T/

 

Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi and Lebanese Ambassador to Tehran Hassan Abbas expressed readiness to enhance cooperation in the medical and health sector, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

During a meeting held in Tehran on Tuesday, the two officials discussed holding joint conferences in various fields of medicine in Lebanon or Iran, in addition to academic cooperation.

Einollahi stated that joint conferences in the fields of medicine can help domestic scientists to exchange views with their colleagues in Lebanon.

At present, 97 percent of the medicine needed by Iran is produced domestically, and in the field of medicine and medical equipment, Iran has made very good progress, he said, expressing hope to strengthen the exchange of medicine and medical equipment between the two countries and accelerate the registration of Iranian medicines in Lebanon.

Expressing readiness to establish university branches in Lebanon, he said that Iranian medical universities are already cooperating with Lebanese universities, however, we can expand the exchange of professors and students.

There is a need to form working groups between the Ministry of Health of Iran and the Lebanese Embassy to identify the needs and fields of joint cooperation to take action in this regard, he also stated.

Mohammad Abbas also for his part said that we are aware of Iran’s progress, especially in the fields of science and medicine and all social, health, and economic levels.

The Lebanese Embassy in Iran is ready to have more interaction with the Iranian Ministry of Health in order to examine the areas for the development of relations between the two countries, he said, noting, Iran-Lebanon cooperation has existed for many years in the field of medical education.

Many Lebanese students in Iran have studied medicine and returned to Lebanon and have a high level of literacy, knowledge, and skills, which indicates the high level of medical education in Iran, he stated.

Iran’s progress in pharmaceutical and medical equipment

The import of pharmaceuticals has declined in Iran by 91 percent, which shows the capability of the country’s pharmaceutical industry, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said on October 11.

With the support of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, we were able to reduce the total of preferred currencies and other currencies used in the country from $4.2 billion to $2.84 billion from 2017 to 2020, he emphasized.

Shanehsaz went on to say that the consumption of foreign exchange in raw materials increased by 2 percent, while medicine import decreased by 31 percent in value.

In 2018, the National Medical Device Directorate reported that the Iranian medical equipment market was worth $2.5 billion, 30 percent of which belonged to over 1,000 domestic firms.

On a global scale, 56 percent of 500,000 medical equipment items available in the world market have Iranian versions. In pharmaceuticals, around 70 percent of Iran’s $4.5 billion markets are domestic products and, in 2018, 97 percent of pharmaceuticals consumed in the country were manufactured locally.

A total of 227 knowledge-based firms are supplying medical equipment for health centers across the country, according to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology. /T.T/

The 40th edition of the Fajr Film Festival opened on Monday at Tehran’s Milad Tower with screening “Beyro”, a sports drama on the life story of Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand.

Directed by Morteza Aliabbas-Mirzai, the film focuses on the odyssey teenager Beiranvand embarks on from his birthplace Sarab-e Yas, a small village in the Lorestan region, to Tehran in 2011 when he made his debut in Naft Tehran.

In his recent interview published by the Persian service of Honaronline, Aliabbas-Mirzai talked about his strong desire to make a sports movie in praise of hope and social responsibility.

In his massive study on several sports personalities, he came to the conclusion that Beiranvand is the most appropriate one.

“Because, he is a living sports personality… and in addition, he had neither money nor a friend at court, and he does not blame anyone else for his problems,” he said.

The film is competing in the official section of the festival, which will end on February 11 with the announcement of winners.

The festival will open to the general public starting tomorrow as filmgoers will be required to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination.

However, the organizers have not put any limit on theater occupation despite reports from the health authorities warning about the increase of Omicron infections in the country.

A lineup of 22 films, most made by the new generation of Iranian filmmakers, will be competing in the festival for a Crystal Simorgh.

Veteran filmmaker Masud Kimiai withdrew himself from the competition for best director award last week as his noir “Killing the Traitor” is competing in other categories.

He made the decision following the announcement of the jury, which embraces actor Shahab Hossein, who criticized Kimiai at the 2020 Fajr festival after Kimiai withdrew his previous film from the event in sympathy for the victims of the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 167 passengers and 9 crew members.

Reza Mirkarimi is another big name competing with his “Night Watchman” starring Mohsen Kiai and Vishka Asayesh. No information about the plot has been published as yet.

Celebrated director Kiumars Purahmad has made a cameo appearance in the movie.

Another big name is Ebrahim Hatamikia who will participate in the festival as a producer for his son Yusef’s debut feature, “Golden Night”. No details have been revealed about the film.

Yusef worked with his father as an assistant director in “Che” about the guerrilla war commander Mostafa Chamran.

“The Loser Man” by Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian and “The Situation of Mehdi” by Hadi Hejazifar are other highlights of the lineup. /T.T/

Iran has ranked 100th in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2021, improving two steps compared to 2020.

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) is an innovative, annual benchmarking study organized by the Business School for the World, INSEAD, encompassing more than 130 countries.

With a score of 34.38, Iran breaks into the top 100 in GTCI 2021. The GTCI introduces the dimension of talent (human capital) and its connection to competitiveness. The variables are grouped into talent enablers, attraction, growth, retention as well as output in terms of vocational and global knowledge skills. It aims to give governments and businesses the distilled data from more than 130 countries needed to inform their decisions about talent policies and strategies.

Since 2013, more countries have been added to the ranking of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index, and Iran’s score has been accompanied by an improvement despite new countries.

With a score of 34.38, Iran breaks into the top 100 in GTCI 2021.

In terms of region, Iran is ranked sixth among the top 10 countries in the Central and Southern Asia regions in 2021.

The GTCI 2021 report shows Switzerland, Singapore, and the United States continue their lead in talent competitiveness.

Kazakhstan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan are the regional countries that surpass Iran, respectively.

Also, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh are the talent-competitive countries following Iran in the region./ T.T/

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 276 films are in contention for the best picture race at the 94th Academy Awards.

All of the presumed Oscar contenders are on the list including “Being the Ricardos” (Amazon Studios), “Belfast” (Focus Features), “C’mon C’mon” (A24), “Candyman” (Universal Pictures), “CODA” (Apple Original Films), “Dune” (Warner Bros), “Encanto” (Walt Disney Pictures), “House of Gucci” (MGM/United Artists Releasing), “Nightmare Alley” (Searchlight Pictures), “Parallel Mothers” (Sony Pictures Classics), “The Power of the Dog” (Netflix), “A Quiet Place Part II” (Paramount Pictures), “Spencer” (Neon/Topic Studios), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (Sony Pictures) and “West Side Story” (20th Century Studios).

Some of the international features from the Oscar shortlist are also eligible for best picture, in addition to the best international feature category like Japan’s “Drive My Car,” Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Iran’s “A Hero” and Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World.” Five of the 15 shortlisted films — Austria’s “Great Freedom,” Kosovo’s “Hive,” Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,” Belgium’s “Playground” and Panama’s “Plaza Catedral” — are not eligible outside of their respective category. Films like Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which didn’t make the shortlist, is still in the running in all other eligible categories including best picture, director and original screenplay.

The Academy amended its eligibility rules for this cycle. Feature films may open in a commercial motion picture theater in one of seven U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County, the City of New York, the Bay Area, Chicago, Illinois, Miami, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia, between March 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021, and complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue.

Iranian feature film “A Hero” has gone on silver screen at cinema theaters across the US from January 21.

Nomination voting will begin on Jan. 27 and concludes on Feb. 1. Nominations will be announced on Feb. 8. /ISNA/

Iran defeated Uzbekistan 5-2 in their opening match of the CAFA Women’s Futsal Championship 2022. Sahar Zamanifard, Fatemeh Papi, Sara Shirbeigi, Fereshteh Karimi and Nesa Ahmadi scored for the Iranian team.

The four-team competition is being held at the Dushanbe Multi-functional Sports Complex from Jan. 21 to 28.

Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan compete in the tournament. The teams will play each other twice.

The Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in Central Asia. /T.T/