The festival was opened by the Dutch-Iranian writer Kader Abdolah, who gave an interesting lecture about the development of Iranian cinema. In addition, filmmakers Mehrdad Oskouei and Marjan Alizadeh came all the way from Iran to talk about their films at the festival, while the London-based rapper Reveal gave away a spectacular hiphop-show on Saturday evening.

On top of that, the audience could enjoy the short film competition; a series of short films that were judged by a professional jury. This jury, consisting of Floortje Smit, Jankees Boer, Bart Groenendaal, Kees Driessen and Mostafa Heravi, had the difficult task to select a winning film out of the many innovative and creative shorts. Finally, the price for the best film in the category 20-50 minutes went to ‘Countdown’ by Khatereh Hanachi, narrating about the Iranian girl Parisa who prepares for her university entrance exam. The best short film in the category 1-20 minutes was, according to the jury Cut bij Parisa Aminelahi.

Both short films received a special additional screening after the festival on Tuesday the 22th of December, in film theatre De Fabriek.

The rest of the program was filled with the most diverse films from Iran; from documentaires on the position of Iranian music and musicians until a series of short films made by blind women. In addition, the audience had the chance to join various interesting Q&A’s with Eefje Blankevoort, Gawie Keijser, Frank Scheffer, Nader Mashayekhi, Gijs Wanders, Pejman Akbarzadeh and others.

You can view the festival's programme here.

You can see the photographs of the festival here.