The 6th International Urban Film Festival opened at the Art Museum Garden in Tehran on Sunday. Prominent Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya was honored at the opening ceremony for years of efforts in Iran cinema, Mehr News Agency reported.

“I hope as members of Iran cinema, we can help reduce the shortcomings in our city and contribute to tranquillity among our citizens,” she said at the event.

Motamed-Arya, 56, is one of the recognized actresses of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. She has been nominated nine times for the best actress award at the Fajr International Film Festival and won the Crystal Simorgh four times.

She is closely involved in humanitarian work and helps raise funds for charities and contributes to world peace.

The festival’s national cinema category will show drama, documentaries and animations on themes such as civil liberties and duties, cultural changes, nostalgia and urban identity, green space, public participation to solve problems collectively, and urban studies.

Foreign participants in the International Cinema category are from Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Australia, Canada, Belgium and Austria.

An annual festival, it is organized by the Art and Culture Organization of Tehran Municipality. Its main focus is on “significance of city and urbanism on human life.” The event also seeks to promote empathy and moral values in cinematic works.

Cineplexes Mellat and Azadi in Tehran will screen the selected works. The event will wrap up on August 5. / Financial tribune /

Iran’s crude oil exports to European Union countries in the first four months of the year reached 9.31 million tons, more than six times higher than those in the corresponding period last year.

That is equivalent to a total of 66.5 million barrels, or nearly 560,000 barrels per day, Tasnim News Agency reported, citing Eurostat, the official news portal of the European Commission.

The 28-nation bloc took in 1.37 million tons of oil in January-April 2016. The higher export is largely attributed to the lifting of international restrictions against Iran which allowed the OPEC member to recoup the lost ground in the global crude market.

Italy purchased 2.8 million tons in the four-month period, accounting for nearly 30% of all imports. France and Spain were the other major customers, taking in 2.2 million tons and 1.1 million tons respectively.

Greece, whose largest refiner Hellenic Petroleum was the first western company to resume oil trade with Iran after the lifting of sanctions, shipped in 1.04 million tons of crude from the Persian Gulf producer in the said period.

An official at NIOC, the state-owned oil company, said last month that Iran has signed contracts to export between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels per day of crude to its customers in Europe.

Tehran says it exports close to 2.1 million bpd of crude oil and between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day of condensates, a type of ultra light crude. The No. 3 OPEC producer aims to ramp up supplies to 4.7 million bpd by 2021.

Iran used to sell around 800,000 bpd to European buyers before the tightening of international economic curbs in 2011 and 2012. Sanctions curtailed production to around 2.5 million bpd as exports to Europe dropped to zero.

French energy company Total S.A., Italy’s Eni and Saras, Russia’s Lukoil, Spanish refiner Cepsa, Royal Dutch Shell and Hungary’s MOL are among Iran’s oil customers.

/Financial tribune /

The five-man Iranian karate team finished the karate Poland’s World Games with one gold and four silver medals.

Zabihollah Poursheib defeated his Japanese opponent Ryutaro Araga, to whom he had lost the seven consecutive matches in the last few years, and received the gold medal in the -84 kg division, IRNA reported.

Poursheib had already won the gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games at the -84 kg division. He had also won the bronze medal in 2016 World Karate Championships.

Ali-Asqar Asiabari, at -75; Sajad Ganjzadeh, at +84; Amir Mahdi Mahdizadeh, at -60; and Hamideh Abbas-Ali, at women’s +68 receive silver medals in the games. / Iran daily /

Over 2000 works have been submitted to the visual art section of the 6th edition of the International Green Film Festival, the organizers announced on Wednesday.

The works are from Artists from Iran, China, the U.S., Mexico, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Ecuador and dozens of other countries.

The festival is Iran’s sole environmental event on motion pictures, which also regards other media on its sidelines.

The 6th edition of the festival will be held in Tehran and several other Iranian cities from September 9 to 15.

This year’s festival has put its spotlight on movies promoting green economy, secretary of the festival Farhad Tohidi said earlier in February.

The festival also plans to highlight sustainable tourism this year in line with UN World Tourism Organization’s decision to name 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

Topics such as clean energy and sustainable cities have been taken into consideration in selecting movies for the festival, which was first scheduled to be held in July.

However, the Department of Environment, the main organizer of the event, postponed it until September due to the allegedly unpredictable intense heat in Iran. / Tehran times /

A relatively long-standing gas station in downtown Tehran has recently been inscribed on the National Heritage List, bringing the number of Iran’s registered heritage sites to 31710, ISNA reported on Wednesday.

Called gas station number 234 — formerly number 4 – it marks the second oldest filling station in the county after a counterpart in Abadan, said Akbar Nematollahi, the director of Iran Petroleum Museum and Documents.

Such old stations enjoyed unique architecture, which unfortunately many of them have been demolished or repurposed over the course of time, he added.

Located on 15th Khordad St., the gas station number 4 was built by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in the early 20th century during the Reza Shah Pahlavi reign (1925 – 1941).

The country’s oldest gas station in Abadan, Khuzestan province, was placed on National Heritage list earlier this month. The monument is now part of a petroleum industry museum, which showcases variety of documents and objects such as pumps, scales, jerry cans amongst other tools. / Tehran times /

Iran’s crude oil exports to European Union countries in the first four months of the year reached 9.31 million tons, more than six times higher than those in the corresponding period last year.

That is equivalent to a total of 66.5 million barrels, or nearly 560,000 barrels per day, Tasnim News Agency reported, citing Eurostat, the official news portal of the European Commission.

The 28-nation bloc took in 1.37 million tons of oil in January-April 2016. The higher export is largely attributed to the lifting of international restrictions against Iran which allowed the OPEC member to recoup the lost ground in the global crude market.

Italy purchased 2.8 million tons in the four-month period, accounting for nearly 30% of all imports. France and Spain were the other major customers, taking in 2.2 million tons and 1.1 million tons respectively.

Greece, whose largest refiner Hellenic Petroleum was the first western company to resume oil trade with Iran after the lifting of sanctions, shipped in 1.04 million tons of crude from the Persian Gulf producer in the said period.

An official at NIOC, the state-owned oil company, said last month that Iran has signed contracts to export between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels per day of crude to its customers in Europe.

Tehran says it exports close to 2.1 million bpd of crude oil and between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day of condensates, a type of ultra light crude. The No. 3 OPEC producer aims to ramp up supplies to 4.7 million bpd by 2021.

Iran used to sell around 800,000 bpd to European buyers before the tightening of international economic curbs in 2011 and 2012. Sanctions curtailed production to around 2.5 million bpd as exports to Europe dropped to zero.

French energy company Total S.A., Italy’s Eni and Saras, Russia’s Lukoil, Spanish refiner Cepsa, Royal Dutch Shell and Hungary’s MOL are among Iran’s oil customers.

/  Financial tribune /

Mohammad Nabi Rezaei won the first medal in the history of the Iranian canoeing at the Junior World Championship.

At the junior individual canoeing of 1000 meters in calm waters, Mohammad Nabi Rezaei won the bronze medal and placed third after Russia and Latvia.

He rode the 1000 meters in 4: 51: 531 and climbed the third step of the world podium for the first time for Iran in this class. / Isna /