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2026 CELEBRATION OF IRANIAN CINEMA IN SAN FRANCISCO

Koret Auditorium, de Young museum

September 25 & 27

Experience the vibrant world of Iranian cinema at the 2nd Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema at San Francisco’s renowned de Young museum presented in partnership with the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

This eagerly anticipated event showcases some of the year’s most acclaimed Iranian films as curated by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, including exclusive Bay Area premieres. Join us for a remarkable cinematic journey through stories that inspire, challenge, and captivate.

Friday, September 25, 2026 – 4:30pm

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Divine Comedy

San Francisco Premiere

Iranian writer-director Bahram Ark (Skin, Animal) plays Bahram, an Iranian writer-director who has achieved fame on the international festival circuit but has yet to have one of his films screened in Iran. After his latest is again denied a permit, he and his producer Sadaf (Sadaf Asgari) set out on her moped determined to find a way to get it on screen with the help of a hodgepodge of decidedly eccentric characters. Bahram’s situation is all too familiar to co-writer-director Ali Asgari (Terrestrial Verses) and his regular collaborators here, who use romantic comedy tropes to illuminate the absurdities — and dangers — faced by filmmakers in Iran.

Director: Ali Asgari
Screenwriter: Alireza Khatami, Bahram Ark, Bahman Ark, Ali Asgari
Cast: Bahram Ark, Sadaf Asgari, Hossein Soleimani

In Persian with English subtitles, 98 min.

Preceded by

Son

Iran, 2024

Farhang Short Film Festival Audience Choice Award winner

In a village in remote Iranian Kurdistan, an old mother waits for her son to return from military service. When he doesn’t arrive as expected, she sets out to find him only to discover a truth about his identity that will change their lives forever.

Director/Screenwriter: Saman Hosseinpuor
Cast: Maryam Boubani, Kurosh Ahmadi, Kianoosh Farzin

In Kurdish with English subtitles, 15 min.

Friday, September 25, 2026 – 7pm

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Oh, What Happy Days

San Francisco Premiere

Family secrets and betrayals explode in the most riveting video call you’ve ever seen. Writer-director Homayoun Ghanizadeh transforms the familiar stacked boxes of talking heads we all live with these days into a dazzling, high-wire act of storytelling and performance when three generations of an Iranian family are confronted by the son of a former family servant over the fate of the stately family home back in Iran. Ghanizadeh’s riveting, all-star ensemble — Golshifteh Farahani, Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Shirin Neshat — delivers an acting tour de force that deliberately transcends the bounds of the film’s form.

Director/Screenwriter: Homayoun Ghanizadeh
Cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Shirin Neshat, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Payman Maadi

In Persian with English subtitles, 107 min.

Preceded by

Where The Winds Die

Iran, 2021

Farhang Short Film Festival 3rd prize winner

A Kurdish city in western Iran, Sardasht was the target of a chemical weapons attack in 1987. Director Pejman Alipour captures the moment the city’s peaceful calm was shattered in this powerful, watercolor-style animated short.

Director/Screenwriter: Pejman Alipour

In Persian with English subtitles, 13 min.

Sunday, September 27, 2026 – 4:30pm

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Mortician

San Francisco Premiere

Winner of the audience-voted Sean Connery Prize at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Mortician is set in Canada where a schlubby émigré, Mojtaba (Nima Sadr), performs Islamic ritual washing of the dead as a cultural service of the Iranian government. When he loses his job he wonders how he’ll continue to send money to his family back home until an enigmatic, exiled pop star (Gola), an outspoken opponent of the regime, hires him to help her with one last public protest. The oddest of couples, they find common ground amidst the cold Canadian winter until their secret is exposed in writer-director Abdolreza Kahani’s slow burn thriller.

Director/Screenwriter: Abdolreza Kahani
Cast: Nima Sadr, Gola, Pouya Razavi

In Persian with English subtitles, 95 min.

Preceded by

Abraham

Iran, 2024

Farhang Short Film Festival 2nd prize winner

A visually striking story of a small town tragedy, Abraham follows a local policeman who stumbles into a family secret while investigating the murder of a young man whose body is found in a cave outside the city.

Director/Screenwriter: Elnaz Ghaderpour, Reza Gamini
Cast: Hamid Pour Azari, Sajad Afsharian, Safoora Khoshtinat

In Persian with English subtitles, 14 min.

Sunday, September 27, 2026 – 7pm

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Woman And Child

San Francisco Premiere

After the powerhouse family drama Leila’s Brothers (2023 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema) led to a jail sentence in Iran, writer-director Saeed Roustaee returned to Cannes last year with this more diffuse but still devastating story about a woman seemingly under siege from all sides. Parinaz Izadyar stars as Mahnaz, a nurse and widow with two children, including a rebellious teenage son, looking forward to starting over with new partner Hamid (Payman Maadi) until a sudden tragedy and a shocking betrayal sets Mahnaz on a desperate course of revenge against the school system, the courts and her own family.

Director/Screenwriter: Saeed Roustaee
Cast: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi, Soha Niasti

In Persian with English subtitles, 131 min.

Preceded by

The Granny And Fishes

Iran, 2025

Farhang Short Film Festival 1st prize winner

After ill-conceived irrigation projects and drought rendered Lake Hāmūn on the Iran-Afghanistan border a dust bowl, hundreds of villagers migrated away, except for an old woman whose solitary routine of gathering up dead fish is the subject of this quietly compelling documentary.

Director: Maria Mavati, Ehsan Farokhi Fard

In Persian with English subtitles, 27 min.

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