The Factors of Iranian Cinema’s Global Success at Festivals: Content Analysis of Prize-Awarded Movies at Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno Festivals

Abstract

This article is about the factors of Iranian cinema’s success at global festivals, particularly Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno. The main aim is to understand the amount of “blackening” in the Iranian movies that were prize-awarded. The research method is content analysis which the sample size 34 movies. The findings indicate that among 34 examined movies, only in two films i.e. The Circle and Crimson Gold, all indicators related to blacken have been represented. In two other movies, only the story was related to the Iranian social issues. Therefore contrary to the official viewpoint, blackening was not at a level that could account for the success of the Iranian prize-awarded films. On the other hand, the examination of ethical values shows that most sequences of examined movies consider to apply ethical values, affection, love and caring, and except for the movie 20 Fingers, this variable is represented more or less. Therefore the representation of human affections and values has been the most significant factor of Iranian cinema’s global success at the international festivals.