Iran's Hollywood Thrives

Hollywood representatives traveled to Iran earlier this month and were surprised to find a thriving film industry despite a climate riddled with censorship and constant government supervision, according to CNN.

The House of Cinema, Iran's film association, hosted the Hollywood trip. Sent from Hollywood was Ganis, producer Bill Horberg and actress Annette Bening. While there, they met with Iranian screenwriters, actors and directors. The two parties shared ideas on filmmaking and took part in both workshops and film screenings.

It was observed that Iran's creativity in their cinematic ventures has not suffered despite the political strife they are constantly facing. In an interview with CNN, Negar Mottahedeh, a professor at Duke University, said that creativity and prohibition are counter-intuitively intertwined. Ganis expressed the difficulties the film industry in Iran faced.

"It's hard to get Iranian films distributed in Iran because . . . there aren't that many cinemas. And then, of course, the government intrudes on the process with a certain censorship set of rules and [regulations]," said Ganis.

Mottahedeh viewed the situation more optimistically.

"At the moment, I think [Iranian cinema] does have wide exposure, I do think that Iranian filmmakers are already thinking about the foreign market," said Mottahedeh.

"The language of movies," as they call it in Iran, has thrived since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, according to Mottahedeh. Supporting this is the fact that a number of post-revolution Iranian films have been screened at international film festivals world wide, with a few winning awards.