Ali Kalantari

Ali Kalantari started filmmaking by producing three short films and writing some scenarios for short films. He received the Obeid Zakani Award as a third prize-winner in Iranian satire festival before he abandoned his studies in Conservation Studies (Historic Buildings)

Ali Story
Ali continued to artworks by making commercials, clips and teasers and on this path, he joined the council of the campaign and branding designers for some high-quality products.
Being active in modern arts like video art, installation and performance art, he has created works, which have been showcased at the major art exhibitions of modern arts in Iran. He has displayed his works along with fine works of the great persons like Abbas Kiarostami, Ahmad Nad-e Aliyan and Hossein Khosrojerdi. Kalantari has been active in producing historical, social and artistic documentaries and fiction films for 12 years. Amid this time, he has received top awards in international festivals including best director award from Barcelona Independent Film Festival (l’Alternativa), best film award from the Aubagne International Film Festival, best director award from International Film Festival of Kish and jury award from Arizona Film Festival. Kalantari was among candidates of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in New Asian Currents part.
However, this was not her main path and it can be said that it was her experimental period.

Visual arts
• Participating at Third New Art Biennial of Tehran with the “Hungry Man and Two Boxes of Onion” performance, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, Iran.
• Participating at Forth New Art Exhibition (Idealistic Art) with the “Chance” installation and was recognized to be among top 5 elected works in Nyavaran Cultural Center, Iran.

Film Awards
• The first grade of student screenwriting all over the country (2002)
• The first grade of satire screenwriting of “Obeyd Zakani” (2003)
• Award of best director in 7th “Kish International Documentary Film Festival” for Golden Dances, Iran (2006)
• The documentary prize exaequo in “L’Alternativa Barcelona Independent Film Festival” for Golden Dances, Spain (2007)
• Nominated Golden Dances as the best film in “CinemadaMare Film Festival”, Rome, Italy (2007)
• Nominated Ogawa Shinsuke Prize in Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival for for Golden Dances (2007)
• Award of the best documentary in “Aubagne International Film Festival” for Golden Dances, France (2008)
• Awards of best documentary and best screenwriter in “Tabriz Cultural Heritage Festival” for Golden Dances, Iran (2008)
• Nominated Kish Island Documentary as the best documentary reward in “TV Film Festival”, Iran (2010)
• Special Jury Prize in 1st “Kish International Film Festival” for fiction fim “Lost Coast” Iran (2011)
• Platinum Remi Award 47 Houston International Film Festival for “In film In Film Nabayad Dide Beshe” (2014)
• Special Jury Prize Arizona film festival “In Film Nabayad Dide Beshe” (2014)
• Award of the best film in Family fiction film festival from Porto ”In Film Nabayad Dide Beshe” (2014)
• Award of the best short documentary in Mowg film festival from Kish, Iran (2017)

It should be noted that in order to achieve his style, he has not had any activity or work in the field of cinema since 2013 by criticizing previous works and researching and studying in the field of art and cinema. Also, his activities in the field of performing and visual arts were limited to years 2002 till 2004 and the resumption of work in this field was the continuation of the same studies from 2018 that it started with "Salus" performance and "Kidball" activist performance .Now, considering about 8 years of study, critique, idea generation, design and achieving his style, we will see a busy future from him.