Addressing the teenage audience, he said, ‘be who you are if you want to be an artist. Being yourself makes you a successful filmmaker. You should not copy others and the hero of your film should exist in your real-life’.

Tahmasb focused on some types of cinema, such as documentaries that deal with real issues and fiction films. ‘As a filmmaker, you should experiment with different types of cinema and try to find your own way of narrating’, he said.

He pointed out that tragedy movies are those which move towards the bad. In comedies, everything goes well and the cinema between these two is called drama. ‘Cinema is formed based on human beings’ moods and if we are going to make a film, we should know how we feel and what we want to transfer’, he continued.

Tahmasb also elaborated on different movie genres, such as western and war movies and their combinations. His recommendation for the teenagers was not to try to write as a great writer. ‘Writing a movie script is like writing a letter in which one describes their state and mood. So I think you should write about people or things you know well. As an artist, you are not expected to convey a message or teach. You should come up with an idea which is attractive to the audience. Your audience wants to be entertained. So a good screenplay is the one which we enjoy reading and can easily have a mental image of’, he explained.

He defined cinema as a combination of sight and sound and referred to the role of the director as a significant one. ‘A director should be an expert in all aspects and know a lot about sound and visual features. Regarding Puppet shows, you again need to attend classes and should know that the world of puppets is a totally different world’, Tahmasb said.

This Iranian director described the animation world as a dreamy one and talked about short and feature films and their themes and ways of developing them. ‘We should make films as we easily as we speak and we should not look at it so strictly. There are many subjects and themes in the world around us but we simply don’t pay attention to them’.

He also emphasized that the initial ideas should be jotted down in a notebook. ‘Anything which excites you should be written down and developed’, he said. He referred to the plot as another important element in a film, giving it a particular color that you remember even after a while.

Due to the outbreak of the new Corona Virus, based on the multilateral agreement made by the Iranian Cinema Organization, Farabi Cinematic Foundation, and Isfahan Municipality, this edition of the festival is being held virtually from October 18 to 23, 2020 under the supervision of Alireza Tabesh.

The Festival is organized in a competitive format in two different sections; Iranian Cinema Competition and International Cinema Competition.