Blog: Film festivals

In the name of the most supreme artist, the loving God.

TISFF, known as one of the world's most significant, renowned, and prestigious short film events and also an OSCARS® Qualifying short film festival, has been held for 40 consecutive years by IYCS.

IYCS is probably the world’s biggest and most comprehensive center for short film production and filmmaking training, with over 80 branches and a family of 250 thousand filmmakers and film graduates! Many of its graduates, rank among the top celebrated filmmakers in the world.

IYCS supports the production of more than 1,000 short films annually and trains more than 7,000 young filmmakers annually.

It has been winning numerous awards at prestigious international film festivals over the past four decades.

After holding and celebrating 40 glorious years, TISFF is introducing two new categories to the previous categories of Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental for its 41st edition.
With the rise of cutting-edge and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR/ XR/ MR/ AR), we are witnessing fundamental, profound, and significant changes in the creative production process and the presentation of visual and audio works. These advancements are shaping a future where short film production and distribution will evolve rapidly and precisely.

To understand, recognize, utilize, reflect, advance, and enhance these technological transformations and advancements in service of the art and industry of short films, the festival introduces two new categories in its international competition sections to accept, judges and screens creatively produced short films made using these technologies:

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality).

The festival also introduces these two categories to fulfill and advance its global mission of fostering, encouraging, enhancing, and promoting excellence in short filmmaking, inviting up-and-coming talents and emerging filmmakers to delve into the realms of emerging, creativity, immersion, and low-budget production, as well as acknowledging and supporting those who excel in this innovative landscape.


New categories added to the 41st TISFF:
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality) ($500 Cash Prize)
AI (Artificial Intelligence) ($500 Cash Prize)


Additionally, In the upcoming 41st TISFF, like the previous period, two awards will be given based on themes and topics:

1. The Truth-seekers Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
This thematic award honors:
• Spreading hope and promoting peace and reconciliation instead of war and violence.
• Reviving the ideals of fraternity, justice, and fairness among nations.
• Elevating the status of women and the family.

2. The Silk Road Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
The Silk Road has long been a major platform for promoting cultural and human interactions that have manifested into a sort of common heritage among the residents of 300 cities and 73 countries. In consideration of its illustrious historical role of establishing rich and stable connections, be it cultural, political, economic, or religious, among the many civilizations, nations, and governments that have come and gone throughout the region over time, as well as recent considerations for the revival of this road, it is quite evident that the Silk Road is strategically imperative for the success of international cooperation in various areas of activity. Accordingly, the Tehran International Short Film Festival, on the brink of its 41st anniversary and with new courses of action undertaken, has put on its agenda a new outlook on the cultural and economic opportunities of this facilitative road, as a sign of a long-enduring relationship between the two civilizations of the east and the west.

The Silk Road Award honors outstanding merits in the film industry that seek to represent the evident and hidden capacities and heritage of the Silk Road as a prosperous motif of:

Sustainable and comprehensive development, peaceful coexistence, ethnical cohesion, consolidation of civilian relations, national integrity, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, promulgator of peace and fraternity among individuals, ethnicities, and nations, retainer of individual and group rights and properties, compliance with neighborly rights, fair trade, generative economy and collective production of wealth, cultural diplomacy, and mutual respect for other cultures and native or national values.