Cinema Vérité to review world’s top docs

The documentaries will be screened in a section named “World’s Best” during the event that is Iran’s major international festival for documentary films, the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), which is the main organizer of the festival, announced on Saturday.
Earlier last week, the organizers announced that they will screen “Mother-Child” by the Argentinian-born filmmaker Andrea Testa at the Cinema Vérité this year.
The film won the Best Mid-Length Documentary Award at the Hot Docs in Toronto, Canada, and also received a special mention from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2019.
The 14th edition of the Cinema Vérité, which will be organized entirely online during December due to a spike in coronavirus cases in the country, also plans to screen the latest films by the world’s celebrated filmmakers in a section named “Special Screenings”.
Due to the pandemic, the organizers have made changes in the festival’s regular program this year.
Accordingly, they plan to organize a review of movies acclaimed in previous editions of the festival.
In addition, a lineup of documentaries on the pandemic and COVID-19 will be screened in a special category, which has so far received over 130 submissions.
 The four top works selected in this category will be honored at the closing ceremony, while the international section of the festival is non-competitive this year.
The organizers plan to design platforms to guarantee the festival entries against piracy.
DEFC director Mohammad Hamidi-Moqaddam earlier announced the center’s plan to pay tribute to celebrated filmmaker Khosro Sinai who died of coronavirus in August.
A highlight of this year’s festival is a virtual master class that will be held by Polish filmmaker Hanna Polak.
She will be discussing filmmaking in a crisis at the master class.