Iran’s Animation Industry Holds First-Ever Tehran Cartoon Sessions
The animation community in Iran’s capital city, Tehran, came together last week for Tehran Cartoon Sessions, a unique artist-driven event that took place over three evenings on September 17-19.
Organized by Hoorakhsh Studios and the art space Darbast Platform, the event offered six case studies of Iranian-produced animation projects: three professional films and three student films.
The directors and crews of each project were invited to present their production process to a wide-ranging audience that included other industry pros, students, and animation fans. The goal of the non-profit event is to encourage an exchange of information about animation production techniques in Iran and to create a networking opportunity for members of Tehran’s animation community.
“We intend to reveal the black box of animation making, in order to show the audience and the enthusiasts what is going on behind this mysterious curtain,” wrote the organizer of the event Ashkan Rahgozar, who is also the founder of Hoorakhsh and director of the upcoming feature The Last Fiction. “We do not want to merely show animated films, then critique them and/or conduct a narrative analysis. We want, rather, to prepare a practical context in which the challenging process of making an animation can be better appreciated.”
Rahgozar tells Cartoon Brew that the goal is to hold the event every six months, and that they plan to invite foreign artists to also participate in the sessions.
The six films that were presented in the inaugural Tehran Cartoon Sessions were:
- The Switchman by Mehdi Khorramian
- Icky by Parastoo Cardgar
- Jamshid: A Lament fo A Myth by Moin Samadi
- Ascribed Achievements by Samaneh Shojaei
- The Servant by Farnoush Abedi
- Hide and Seek by Mohsen Shokrtalab
A teaser for the event is below followed by additional photos from the event:
