Iranian dark comedy “World War III” won the jury award and the best actor award for Mohsen Tanabandeh at the first edition of the Da Nang Asian Film Festival (DANAFF), the organizers announced on Saturday in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang.

Directed by Hooman Seyyedi, the film was Iran’s submission to the 2023 Oscars.

Tanabandeh won the award for his portrayal of Shakib, a homeless day laborer who never got over the loss of his wife and son in an earthquake years ago.

Over the last couple of years, he has developed a relationship with a deaf and mute woman, Ladan. The construction site on which he works today turns out to be the set for a film about the atrocities committed by Hitler during WWII. Against all odds, he is given a movie role, a house and a chance at being somebody. When Ladan learns about this, she comes to his workplace begging for help. Shakib’s scheme to hide her goes tragically wrong and threatens to ruin his newfound status and what seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tanabandeh was honored with the Orizzonti Award for best actor at the 79th Venice International Film Festival for “World War III”, which also won the Orizzonti Award for best film.

“Children of the Mist” by Vietnamese director Ha Le Diem was picked as best film at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival.

The documentary takes the viewers to the misty mountains of northern Vietnam, where a Hmong teenage girl faces the challenges of growing up. In Di’s traditional culture, girls marry as early as 14. But at school, she learns there are alternatives.

Kavich Neang from Cambodia won the award for best director for “While Building”, while the best screenplay award was given to “Joyland” by Saim Sadiq from Pakistan.

Co-written by Sadiq and Maggie Briggs, “Joyland” is about the youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family who takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque and quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.

Juliet Bao Ngoc Doling was named best actress for her role in the Vietnamese drama “Glorious Ashes”. /T.T/

More than 200 Foreign companies from 13 countries are going to participate in the 27th Iran International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition (Iran Oil Show 2023), which is slated to be held at the Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds during May 17-20.

According to the Director General of the Iranian Oil Ministry’s Office of Public Relations Ali Forouzandeh, the foreign companies participating in the exhibition are from Russia, China, Belarus, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, India, UAE, Oman, and Turkey.

Forouzandeh said the number of foreign participants in this year’s event has doubled in comparison to the previous year, while the number of Iranian companies that are going to take part in the event has also increased by 35 percent.

100 events have been scheduled to be held during the exhibition, including the signing of memorandums of understanding and contracts between different departments of the Oil Ministry and private companies, 33 side events, 10 specialized knowledge-based meetings, five presentations by the Vice Presidency of Research and Technology, three business forums with Russian companies, three meetings focusing on optimization, as well as the unveiling of a large number of oil industry equipment built by domestic companies. /T.T/

Global Energy Monitor, in a recent report, has said Iran is the world’s top country in terms of oil pipelines under construction. Based on the report, the Iranian Oil Ministry is also among the world’s top oil pipeline developers.

According to new data from Global Energy Monitor, Africa, and West Asia are home to 49 percent of all oil transmission pipelines under construction globally at a cost of $25.3 billion.

The 2023 annual survey of data in the Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker shows that these regions together are building 4,400 kilometers (km) of crude oil transmission pipelines at an estimated capital expenditure of $14.4 billion. An additional 10,800 km are proposed in these regions at an estimated cost of $59.8 billion.

Globally, there are 9,100 km of oil transmission pipelines under construction and an additional 21,900 km of proposed pipelines. These pipelines in development are estimated to cost $131.9 billion in capital expenditure.

The total 31,000 km of oil pipelines in development globally represents an increase of nearly 30 percent from this time last year.

The leading five countries in terms of in-development pipelines (proposed and under construction) are Iran, the United States, India, Iraq, and Tanzania.

The top five parent companies developing oil pipelines are state-owned enterprises and private companies, including Iran’s Oil Ministry, the China National Petroleum Corporation, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited, and France’s TotalEnergies.

The longest pipeline projects under construction are the 1,950-km Niger–Benin Oil Pipeline and the Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline (PNCPL) in India, both slated to start operating in 2024. Canada is home to the third-largest pipeline project under construction, the 980-km Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX), expected to start in 2023 as an expansion to the existing Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline. /T.T/

Iranian shooter Sajjad Poorhosseini has bagged a gold medal at the 2023 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup.

Sajad Poorhosseini ranked first with a total score of 240.2 points in the men’s 10m Air Pistol.

Athletes from Ukraine and Germany received silver and bronze, respectively. Zeinab Toomari in the women’s division was another Iranian representative at the event.

The 2023 ISSF World Cup kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 8 and will wrap up on May 25. /MNA/

The 34th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) was opened in the Iranian Capital at Imam Khomeini’s Grand Mosalla on Wednesday.

Deputy Director of the 34th Tehran International Book Fair, Ali Ramezani said that nearly 100 foreign publishers, 200 booksellers, and 2,700 domestic publishers are active in the virtual and in-person section of the book fair.

Referring to the presence of the directors of Muscat, Doha, and New Delhi Fairs, he added that the ministers of Tajikistan and Venezuela partake in the exhibition.

He noted that Tajikistan is a guest of honor at the Tehran International Book Fair

“The Future Is Readable” is the motto of this year’s book fair.

The 34th Tehran International Book Fair is underway from 20 to 30 May 2023 at Imam Khomeini’s Grand Mosalla. /MNA/

After the Iranian genius mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, Tina Turkman became the second Iranian woman to get Ph.D. in pure mathematics from Harvard University.

Turkman focused his doctoral thesis on Geodesic flows on hyperbolic surfaces under the supervision of Professor Curtis McMullen, winner of the Fields Medal.

She completed her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology in 2017, and in the same year, she was directly accepted to Harvard University’s mathematics doctoral program.

In 2012, Tina Turkman received the gold medal at the National Mathematical Olympiad, and in 2013, she won the silver medal at the World Mathematical Olympiad.

Turkman has the gold medal of the international mathematics competition in 2015, along with a national gold medal and a bronze medal. /MNA/

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force has successfully test-launched a domestically-manufactured rocket equipped with a thermobaric warhead.

The test of the indigenous Fajr-5 (Dawn-5) rocket with a thermobaric warhead, which operates with a fuel-air explosive (FAE) system, was carried out on Sunday.

Fajr-5 is a 333-mm rocket, whose guided version, known as Fajr-5C, was earlier delivered to the IRGC Ground Force units and is currently furnished with a warhead with more destructive power.

The destructive power of the new thermobaric warhead, which uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, is reportedly 1.5 times greater than that of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and enhances the rocket’s blast radius and thermal effect.

The thermobaric explosive’s lower sensitivity than TNT has made it a safer option in comparison with conventional warheads.

Fajr-5 is known as the most advanced and longest-range version of the Fajr ground-to-ground rockets that have various classes with different functions. The 333-mm rocket that runs on solid fuel has single- and two-stage versions, with a range of 75 kilometers and 180 kilometers, respectively.

The new thermobaric warhead’s function would make the Fajr-5 rocket a suitable weapon for the fight against terrorist groups in mountainous and impassable terrain, where terrorists usually construct their shelters and trenches.

Iranian military experts and engineers have in recent years made remarkable breakthroughs in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient.

Iranian officials have made clear that the country will never bow to pressure to scale down its military programs, including its missile power, which are entirely meant for defense.

MNA/

The United World Wrestling (UWW) announced that Iranian free-style wrestler Rahman Amouzad is on top of the world ranking.

According to UWW, Rahman Amouzad in the 65 kg weight category is placed at the top of the world ranking of weights, while Kamran Ghasempour ranked second in the 92 kg weight category.

Reza Atri, Hassan Yazdani, and Amirhossein Zare ranked third in the 61kg, 86kg, and 125kg weight categories respectively.

Also, Younes Emami and Mohammad Nokhodi were ranked fourth in the 74kg and 79 kg weight categories. /MNA/

The 12th International Innovation and Technology Exhibition (INOTEX 2023) opened at Tehran’s Pardis Technology Park on Tuesday and will run until May 12.

With the theme of ‘innovation ecosystem under one roof’, INOTEX is Iran’s biggest technology event and the forerunner in the region, bringing technology and innovation experts around the world together to bridge the gap between innovators, investors, and traders.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Technology and Innovation Report 2021 has placed Iran among upper-middle countries in terms of readiness for frontier technologies.

The index yielded results for 158 countries with the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom receiving the highest scores on a scale of 0 to 1. Based on their rankings, countries are placed within one of four 25-percentile score groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high values of the index.

The report has put Iran in the 71st position with a total score of 0.46, higher than Qatar, Oman, and Morocco.

Iran was also placed 82 in ICT, 74 in skills, 37 in R&D, 130 in industry, and 53 in finance sectors, according to Iran National Inventions Team.

Only a few countries currently create frontier technologies, but all countries need to prepare for them.

To assess national capabilities to equitably use, adopt and adapt these technologies this report has developed a ‘readiness index’. The index comprises five building blocks: ICT deployment, skills, R&D activity, industry activity, and access to finance, according to the report.

According to the Global Innovation Index (GII 2022) report, Iran is the second most innovative country in the Central and South Asian region and the third among low-middle income countries.

Iran ranked 53rd in the world with 7 steps up compared to 2021.

According to the 2022 GII, Switzerland, the United States of America, Sweden, England, and the Netherlands are the most innovative economies in the world, and China is on the verge of entering the world’s 10 most innovative countries.

The top global companies increased their R&D spending by almost 10 percent to more than $900 billion in 2021, more than in 2019 (before the pandemic).

The drivers of this increase were mainly four industries of “Information and Communication Technology Hardware and Electrical Equipment”, “Information and Communication Technology Software and Services”, “Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology” and “Construction and Industrial Metals”.

In the annual ranking of innovation capacity and output of world economies, key changes are observed in the top 15 countries. Vietnam (48th), Iran (53rd), and the Philippines (59th) are middle-income economies with the fastest growth in innovation performance to date.

With 7 ranks of promotion compared to 2021, Iran has been ranked 53rd in the world, second in the Central and South Asian region, and third in low-middle income countries, and for the second consecutive year, the innovation development rate is higher than expected.

Iran is leading in indicators such as trademark registration (rank 1) and science and engineering graduates (rank 2). In terms of innovation outputs, Iran has a performance similar to high-income European economies such as Latvia (rank 41) and Croatia (rank 42).

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei designated the current Iranian year (March 2022-March 2023) as “The Year of Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating”. Strengthening knowledge-based companies are on the agenda, raising hope for reducing obstacles on the path to development.

In this regard, a strategic technology development headquarters was formed and 362,000 technological projects and 154 commercialization projects were supported, in addition to the inauguration of 23 national mega projects.

Moreover, in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem development, 65 creative houses and innovation centers, and 30 specialized accelerators have been established with the aim of empowering and strengthening the export capacity of knowledge-based, creative, and technological companies.

Knowledge-based companies and creative startups have grown over the past five years, and Iran has risen 45 places in the Global Innovation Index, according to the UNESCO 2021 Report. /T.T/