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2024 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema

A woman crouching by a stream.
June 14, 2024 -
June 30, 2024


The UCLA Film & Television Archive is proud to continue its long tradition of bringing the best cinema from Iran and the Iranian diaspora to Los Angeles. Ever mindful of the ongoing struggles facing Iranian filmmakers in their native country, this year’s program champions the work of new and emerging directors while bringing back to the screen a long-thought-lost landmark of Iranian cinema. Making its world restoration premiere, writer-director Marva Nabili’s The Sealed Soil (1977) is the earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman and returns to the big screen almost 50 years after Nabili smuggled a workprint of the film out of Iran in a suitcase on the eve of the Iranian Revolution. We are also once again happy to present selected finalists from the 2023 edition of the Farhang Foundation Short Film Festival. The power of the moving image to connect people otherwise distanced by cultural, political and national divides and to lift them up in times of crisis has been embodied nowhere more profoundly over the last several decades than in the humanism, artistry and courage of Iranian filmmakers. The Archive is honored to highlight their work, again, at the Billy Wilder Theater.

Program generously funded by the Farhang Foundation.

Past Programs & Events

Title Date and Time Location
A woman harvesting tomatoes.

In the Land of Brothers

Sunday, June 30, 2024 - 7:00 pm Billy Wilder Theater
A man kicking in the air, and another man raising his hands.

Dark Matter

Saturday, June 29, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater
Two people sitting on soil and overlooking a landscape.

Achilles

Friday, June 28, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater
A man and woman on a bicycle.

Empty Nets

Sunday, June 23, 2024 - 7:00 pm Billy Wilder Theater
A woman draped in a cloth, looking towards the ocean.

Roxana

Saturday, June 22, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater
Three people standing in the desert.

Cause of Death: Unknown

Friday, June 21, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater
A woman crouching by a stream.

The Sealed Soil

Saturday, June 15, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater
A person standing, a person trimming a vine, and a person sitting in a garden.

Joonam

Friday, June 14, 2024 - 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater