Iranian director Sonia Haddad’s film “Exam” has received the Grand Jury Award – Live-Action Short at the American Film Institute – AFI FEST, the organizers announced on Friday.

The award was presented to the film for “its bold directorial style, anchored by a stunning lead performance,” the jury said in their statement.

“‘Exam’ stood out from the other films for its bold directorial style, anchored by a stunning lead performance,” the jury said in its statement published by the Organizers.

“The result is a tense portrait that reaches past its specificity into the universal,” the statement added.

“Exam” is about a teenage girl who agrees to deliver a pack of cocaine on the day of an important exam at school.

The grand jury award winners in the live-action and animated short categories will be eligible for the 2020 Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short Academy Awards.

The Grand Jury Prize of the festival in the animation section went to “Something to Remember” by Niki Lindroth von Bahr.

The film is about the challenges of the lives of some animals who sound and feel all too human.

The AFI FEST was held in Los Angeles, California from November 14 to 21. / T.T/

Iran’s Educational Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology called for expansion of scientific cooperation with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Ali Khaki Seddigh, the Educational Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology who attended the 5th Meeting of the Heads of Science and Technology Ministries and Departments of (SCO) Member States outlined the positions of Iran’s science ministry and called for the expansion of scientific cooperation with member states.

The 5th Meeting of the Heads of Science and Technology Ministries and Departments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was held on 20-21 November in Moscow, Russia.

The representatives of the SCO observer states, including Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, as well as representatives from the SCO dialogue partners, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey participated at the meeting.

During the meeting, the heads of the delegations exchanged information on the science and technology policies of the SCO member states and were satisfied to note the common and mutually compatible nature of the priorities and formats of science and technological development. They agreed to use this important framework for the purposes of further expanding and intensifying scientific and technological cooperation in the SCO region.

The SCO, which has its headquarters in Beijing, holds summits of heads of states as well as heads of government meetings annually in member countries. /MNA/

Two Iranian companies managed to win the Asian Science Park Association (ASPA) Awards 2019.

The winners were announced during the 23rd ASPA Annual Conference held in Taiwan on November 11-13.

Arya Nanoseez, affiliated to Fars province’s Science and Technology Park, which is the largest biotechnological and nano-technological center in the country, won the ASPA Award.

Behin Ab-e Zendehrood, a knowledge-based company in Isfahan, ranked second in the Asian Science Park Association international competition, IRIB news agency reported on Saturday.

ASPA is an international nongovernmental organization established in Japan in 1997 for the purpose of accomplishing the joint development in the fields of scientific technology, industry and economy in the Asian region.

ASPA has been trying to present a new paradigm for Asian industry and build economic consensus in Asia by bringing innovative organizations, companies and individuals together that make contributions to industrial and economic development in their societies.

Innovative organizations such as research parks, business incubation centers, universities, academic institutions and venture companies in Asian region participate in a competition and outstanding enterprises are nominated by ASPA organization members to be awarded.

The awarded companies have various opportunities to publicize their companies and products through ASPA activities and publications. / T.T/

The second national and the first international conference on Quran’s contribution to humanities and empirical sciences theories will be held at Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology.

Mostafa Borhani, a faculty member of the Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) from the Quranic Miracles Research Center at the university said that the first international conference and the second national conference of this kind dubbed ‘pioneering role of Quran in development of scientific theories’ will be held at the Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology on 18-19 December 2019.

Borhani said that in the conference, the Holy Quran’s contribution to scientific theories will be discussed. He added that Quaran’s contribution to different scientific fields in humanities including economics, educational sciences, psychology, sociology, law, management, theology, philosophy, political science, Islamic studies and history.

He also said that in addition, Quran’s contribution to the development of empirical sciences such as biology, geology, and cosmology and astronomy will also be addressed at the international conference.

The SBU faculty member added that there will be panels as well as opening and closing ceremonies during the conference.

In order to get more information on the scientific event, Borhani said that the researchers and Islamic scholars can refer to the website of the conference available at: http://www.iquransa.com/fa/ MNA/

The short film ‘Fault Line’ written, directed and produced by Soheil Amirsharifi represents Iran at the Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar, November 18-23.

Selected for the short films section of the festival, the movie tells the story of a schoolgirl who must create a new version of the truth after breaking her arm in a motorcycle accident.
The 15-minute-long film will be shown along with 11 more films from 7 countries in the section.
Baran Ehsaei, Khorshid Cheraghipour, Mahoor Mirzanezhad, Siamak Ehsaei, Azade Shahmiri, Paniz Barzali, Baran Cheraghipour and Tabssom Jamalpour are in the cast.
A 2018 production, the film won the Best Short Film Award at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival in October.
The seventh Ajyal Film Festival is presented by the Doha Film Institute. With the theme “Find Film, Find Life”, some 96 films from 39 countries will be shown at the international festival on November 18-24. / MNA/

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds on Tue. in the presence of representatives of more than 400 domestic and foreign companies, including Germany, China and Turkey.

Secretary General of Iran Home Appliances Association Habibollah Ansari made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the exhibition.

He pointed to this year’s motto of the exhibition entitled “markets must cross borders,” and added, “in tandem with meeting domestic demands, export-based markets should be taken into serious consideration.”

The number of exhibitors have exceeded 35 percent as compared to the last year’s corresponding period, he stated.

Identifying domestic companies, developing market of home appliances and also deepening domestic manufacturing of parts are of the main objectives of the exhibition, he stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the statistics on the production volume of home appliances in the first half of current year and added, “production of most home appliances registered a significant growth from March 21 to Sept. 22, 2019.”

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds today in the presence of Chief Executive of Iran Intl. Exhibitions Company (IIEC) Bahman Hosseinzadeh, Deputy Industry Ministry and Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Hamid Zadboum and Acting Head of the Ministry of Industry for Industries Affairs Mehdi Niyaraki.

This exhibition will run until Nov. 22.  / MNA /

Exports of steel by ten major producers in Iran hit 4.049 million tons in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), up eight percent compared to the same period of time in the past year, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

“Industry ministry is planning to increase the exports of steel products to 12 million tons by the end of the current year [March 19, 2020],” according to deputy industry, mining and trade minister.

The value of the exports of such commodities is expected to reach $9 billion by the yearend, Jafar Sarqini has previously announced.

Iran plans to reach steel production of 55 million tons by the Iranian calendar year of 1404 (March 2025-March 2026), of which about 40 percent is planned to be exported.

Iranian industry, mining and trade minister said on Monday that the country holds a 62-percent share of the Middle East’s total crude steel production and it is planning to further increase this share.

Reza Rahmani said that Iran has reached a balanced steel production chain in which all stages of production including engineering, implementation, fabrication and operation are being executed by Iranian experts and with domestic knowledge and technology.

Iran’s steel production has been growing well over the past few years and the country rose from 13th to 10th place in the list of the world’s top steel producers in World Steel Association (WSA)’s latest ranking, he said.

In late January, WSA announced that Iran ranked 10th among crude steel producers in the world in 2018 with 25 million tons of production.

Iran has pushed aside Italy, Taiwan and Ukraine to become the 10th biggest producer of crude steel in the world for the year 2018.

The WSA has put the global crude steel production for the year 2018 at 1.808 billion tons, which shows a 4.6 percent increase compared to 2017.

According to the report, Iran’s crude steel industry has remained in good shape despite the U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s share of global crude steel production was estimated at 1.38 percent for the year 2018. /T.T/

Behdokht Valian has won the Best Actress Award for her role in the Iranian short film ‘Tattoo’ from the 37th Sulmona International Film Festival (SIFF), held in Italy, November 6-9.

Directed by Farhad Delaram, ‘Tattoo’ is about a young girl who wants to renew her driver’s license but she is sent to the traffic police center for her tattoos.
A 2019 production, the 15-minute-long film has won several awards earlier this year.
It won the Golden Owl for best short film at the 19th Tirana International Film Festival, Albania’s Academy Awards short films qualifying event, and the Crystal Bear for best short in the Generation 14plus section of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.
Besides Valian in the leading role, Alireza Sanifar, Anahita Eghbalnejad, Mojtaba Fallahi and Pouria Shakibaei play in the film.
The SIFF is a festival for short films taking place in Sulmona, Italy. it celebrates young cinema from all around the world with a selection of new works from emerging directors and passionate storytellers with unique visions.
The event also presents a range of special initiatives included film workshop, retrospectives, non-competitive feature films screening, concerts and exhibitions. / MNA/

The Iranian junior Kabaddi team has gained a commanding win over Malaysia at the first-ever junior Kabbadi world cup underway on the Iranian Kish Island.

The last match of the first stage of Junior Kabaddi World Cup was held on Wednesday afternoon between Iran and Malaysia and it ended with a 70-29 win for the host country Iran.

With that commanding victory, the Iranian junior team advanced to the quarterfinals against Taiwan tomorrow.

The First-ever Junior Kabaddi World Cup kicked off on 9th November, 2019 in Kish Island, Iran, organized by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF).

Iran, Thailand, Pakistan, Denmark, Bangladesh, China Taipei, Kina and Sri Lanka are teams that will compete in the knock-out stage of quarterfinals on Thursday. / MNA/