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By Bruno Chatelin

The 3rd edition of Slemani International Film Festival will be held in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan on October 10-16, 2018.

Presided by Fuad Jalal, the festival is organized by Masti Film Company and Mullah Bakhtiar the official in charge of supporting the festival.

The event is being supported by several prominent political figures Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Culture and Youth as well as Kurdistan Youth’s Culture and Arts Department.

The films directors from different countries, especially the production of 2017 and 2018, in two sections including the World Cinema Competition (International); comprising feature and short films; documentary, animated and experimental, and the Kurdish Cinema

(national) comprising feature and short works; documentary, animation and experimental will participate in the festival.

Several specialized cinematic workshops and academic meetings are also slated to be held on the sidelines of the festival at five cinema halls in “Cinema City” and the Art Hall in Sulaymaniyah Kurdistan region.

The announcement of the festival was held in Rama Hotel attended by Bakhtiar, Fuad Jalal, Festival Manger and head of Masti Film Company, Danar Omar Fares, Artistic Director Festival, Lina Raza, Program Director of the Festival and a number of prominent artists in the Kurdistan Region.

Addressing the gathering, Bakhtiar said: "Today, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, we would like to inform the people of Kurdistan and the world that all the preparatory works for the festival has been carried out.  We will utilize the experiences of the past two years to hold the upcoming festival. As we announced in the first round, we will continue to support the festival, which has already reached to its third term. Of course, I along with the organizers of the festival will hold the event for six editions.”

He also appreciated all the artists and the officials in charge of holding the festival, expressing hope that they do their best for holding this international cinematic event.

Bakhtiar also thanked the jury members of festival, expressing hope that the selection board has also chose worthy works for the event aimed at satisfying the cinema fans.

He also appreciated Mr Barzani for funding the third edition of the festival, adding that,” Mr Barzani has funded the event, therefore, in the third edition of the festival we do not need the financial support of the art lover and art capitalists of Kurdistan region, I wholeheartedly thank you all.”

He added that holding a successful film festival would require a great deal of funding, and this only would be achieved with love, talent, compassion and sacrifice, and rendering services to a large number of cinema lovers is achieved only with love.

“Now and in the third edition of the festival, we announce that, fortunately, Sulaymaniyah has attained great achievements in the field of culture and art,” he added.

He also urged the Kurdistan Region government, the Kurdistan Parliament and the central government of Iraq to consider Sulaymaniyah as the capital of culture and art throughout the country aimed at holding all Iraqi cultural and artistic activities in this city, underlying that the move will have a great impact on the tourism, recreational, etc activities of the city and would bring about prosperity and progress for the this region.

Bakhtiar also appreciated the efforts of all officials inducing Fuad Jalal, Festival Manger and head of Masti Film Company, Danar Omar Fares, Artistic Director Festival, Lina Raza, Program Director of the Festival and all of his dear brothers and sisters, who have been working round the clock for the past three-month period for holding the festival.

He also expressed hope that the event would become one of the most important cinematic centers in the Middle East.

He also said that everyone would like to develop art in his/her land, and that is the wealth and assets that countries are proud of, and provide a suitable base for rare talents, and nothing but cinema has great power to recognize national identity, introduce democracy and foster proud identity to the world.

At the end of his speech, Bakhtiar, added: "Cinema is a great art, so that we do not have our own cinema; we cannot be the owner of a nation that lives in the civilization of this era. If we have our own cinema, we will step into the circle of civilization in this era. I hope the festival continues its journey and Sulaymaniyah city is always at the service of talented art and artists.”

Following the ceremony several plagues of honor were presented to  a number of private companies in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq who participated in the first and second editions of the festival At the end of the program, Osman Mirwais, from “Lore” Music Ban composed, arranged and supervised and played by Nazar Ziwi, performed several original and Kurdish folk songs.

The jury members of the festival will present 14 “Golden Pine” and a cash prize to the best feature best international film, best director, best screenplay, best movie, best movie that are participating in the international and Kurdish sections of the festival.

The international and Kurdish short film sections of the festival the special jury prize and the audience award will be given to the selected winners.

In the competition section of the short films "World Cinema" and "Kurdish Cinema", the best national film, best directing, best script, best documentary, audiences award, best national short film and special jury award to winners as well as four special award by the Masti film Company will be awarded.

In this round of the festival, the late Iranian filmmaker Taha Karimi, who died on May 13, 2013 in a car accident in Sulaimaniyah, will be bestowed on the best film director by the deceased's family.