OFFICIAL SELECTION

2016 Festival Program

The 5^th Persian International Film Festival closed successfully in Sydney having attracted over 5,000 audiences nationwide. In 2016, the festival director, Amin Palangi, envisioned the Golden Gazelle award in order to boost the reputation of Persian Cinema on an international level and recognise the excellence of filmmakers from the region among audiences and members of the industry in Australia.

Golden Gazelle Winners

5th Persian International Film Festival Jury members Sue Murray, Martin Brown, Helen Panckhurst and Ray Argall announced the winners of the 2016 GOLDEN GAZELLE AWARD for Best Feature and Best Short Film.

In the Feature category the jury awarded THE SALESMAN by Asghar Farhadi while giving an honorary mention to A VERY ORDINARY CITIZEN by Majid Barzegar.
In the Short Film category the jury awarded 500 OUNCES OF GOLD by Shahrzad Dadgar while giving an honorary mention to OPEN WINDOW by Afshin Rezaei.

Jury Members

Ray Argall

President of the Australian Directors Guild (ADG) Ray has worked as a director, producer, DOP, editor and writer on features, shorts, documentaries, and established a reputation as one of Australia's most innovative cinematographers on features [...]

Helen Panckhurst

Head of Production for Matchbox Pictures Helen has produced TV drama, documentaries and feature lms. Her credits as producer for Matchbox include Old School starring Bryon Brown and Sam Neill, The Straits, Gregor Jordan’s documentary [...]

Martin Brown

Director Award Courses, AFTRS Martin produced Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet and Moulin Rouge, winner of Golden Globe for Best Musical in 2001 and was nominated for eight Academy Awards including: Best Picture (winning two for Costume [...]

Sue Murray

Executive Director of Fandango Australia Sue Murray has executive produced Rolf de Heer’s Dr Plonk, Ten Canoes, The King is Dead! and Charlie’s Country ; the documentaries The Balanda and the Bark Canoes and We’re Livin’ [...]

Best Feature

Best Short

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The Salesman

Dir: Asghar Farhadi | 2016

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500 Ounces of Gold

Dir: Shahrzad Dadgar | 2015

Special Event

To celebrate the life and cinema of one of the world’s top filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami, we dedicated a tribute to his cinema. Thanks to AFTRS, a special session was held in Sydney with the screening of one of his latest films, Certified Copy. The tribute to Kiarostami will continue in Melbourne in collaboration with Monash University with a more extensive program around his films later in the year.

Abbas Kiarostami

Filmmaker Guests

The festival hosted a number of national and international guests. Davood Khayam was presented for the world premiere of his debut feature, Mohey. In partnership with AFTRS, we also hosted a retrospective on Majid Barzegarwas also present for a retrospective of his films, A Very Ordinary Citizen, Parviz, and Valderrama. From Australia, the festival also had present Iranian-Australian filmmaker Vida Irani for the screening of her short film Duet.