Biography:
Born on June 22nd 1940 in Tehran, Kiarostami was interested in the arts from an early age. He won a painting competition at the age of eighteen, and left home to study at Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. As a designer and illustrator, Kiarostami worked throughout the ’60s in advertising, making commercials, designing posters, creating credit titles for films, and illustrating children’s books.
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Biography:
Amir Naderi was born in Iran in 1945 in the Persian Gulf port of Abadan, a city built around the world’s largest oil refinery.
Orphaned at an early age and living the life of a street urchin, Naderi had to survive by selling ice, working as a shoeshine boy and recycling empty beer bottles.
In his early teens, Naderi left Abadan and travelled to Tehran where he managed to obtain work as a still photographer on movie sets – a job that he performed into his early twenties. He loved the cinema and quickly felt that it was where he belonged.
In 1970, Naderi directed his first feature film, ‘Khoda Hafez Rafigh’ (Goodbye Friend), and a year later completed  his second feature, ‘Tangna’.

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Biography:
Asghar Farhadi was born in Isfahan, Iran in 1972. Whilst at school he became interested in writing, drama and the cinema, took courses at the Iranian Young Cinema Society and started his career as a filmmaker by making super 8mm and 16mm films.
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Biography:
Abdollah Alimorad was born in Tehran on the 22nd November 1947. From that moment on he was always attracted to painting and manual work. After passing his baccalauréat he enrolled at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, which he unfortunately had to leave through lack of funds. Back in Tehran he enrolled at the Kanoon School of Animation (founded by Nourredin Zarrinkelk). Having received his diploma, he started work at Kanoon where he has various responsibilities on numerous projects. It is at Kanoon that he has produced his body of work.
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Biography:
Bahram Beyzai (Director, Producer, Screen-writer and Editor) was born in Tehran, Iran on 26 December 1938. He was introduced to the world of art when he was still very young. In high school he wrote two historical plays which eventually became his preferred method of writing. He then entered University of Tehran, but did not finish his studies due to lack of interest in the subject he was studying.
It was then that he started researching Iranian theatre and epic literature. At the age of 21 he did an extensive research on the « Book of Kings » (Shahname) and Tazieh which is Iranian traditional plays. He also studied the pre-Islamic history and familiarized himself with Persian painting.
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Biography:
Born in Tehran in 1939 Ebrahim Forouzesh studied film and T.V directing at the college of Dramatic Arts. He started his carrer as a staff of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in 1970. As the Manager of the cinematographic centre for seven years, he was responsible for the production of over 70 films, shorts,  features and animations.
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Biography:
Director, editor and photographer, Ebrahim Saeedi was born in 1965 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. He has a B.A in Cinema from  the Arts University of Tehran.
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Biography:
Independent producer, filmmaker and photographer, Mehrdad Oskouei was born in Tehran in 1969. He has a B.A. in film direction from the University of Arts, starting in the theatre in 1981 and the film world in 1988. He has since made 25 documentaries and shorts.
His films have received over 80 awards from national and international festivals. « The Other Side of Burka » was nominated as best Iranian documentary in 2004 and Oskouei himself was nominated as best young Iranian filmmaker in both 2004 and 2005. 
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Biography:
Born in Tehran in 1973, Mohammad Shirvani left the military career chosen by his father to study fine art at Tehran University, eventually leaving to follow his true love…the cinema.
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Biography:
 
Vahid Vakilifar was born in 1981 in Kermanshah, Iran. He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from  Soureh university,Tehran.
He has been the assistant director and programmer of several long features.
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