Every year the organization committee of the Resistance International Film Festival (RIFF) questions and explores different aspects of social responsibility and adds new categories to the competition program. This year its definition is expanded to include dealing with the invisible threats such as viruses. A new section called “Defenders of Health” is added to the festival’s program to document and show health workers fighting the COVID-19 and thus sacrificing their lives on the path of protecting society’s health.

This festival for now is the only cinema event dedicating the biggest part of its program to this pandemic, and the organizers hope that it would help to gather different experiences in one place, and also to promote a further documentation of the recent events as it would become crucial evidence for the future generations.

Organizers of the festival announced that filmmakers from the United States, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Britain, France, India, Turkey, Iraq have already submitted more than 300 films to compete in this section of the festival and thus to express their gratitude to the health defenders from all around the world.

Of course, artists with their films covering and narrating any other forms of resistance, for example exploring current situation in Yemen, Myanmar, Palestine, Kashmir, India, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Bahrain, Bosnia and other places, opposing colonialism, dealing with the outcomes of capitalism, standing against imperialism and questioning dominant representations in public media, etc. are also more than welcome to participate in the competition.

Iranian cinema is highly held among the professionals of this field and all admit that it constitutes an important part of the world’s cinema. International film festivals held in Iran help to bring together different cinematic traditions and provide an opportunity to get to know them and to learn from them.

RIFF’s carefully curated program as well has earned this festival recognition from viewers and industry professionals alike. American filmmakers such as Michael Moore, Oliver Stone as well as many other artists from more than 100 different countries have participated with their documentaries and films in this festival. Also, many renowned international guests and exceptional filmmakers have come directly to present their films and interact with viewers, including, David Barsamian, Scott Frank, Rafael Lara, Darnell Stephen Summers, Yvonne Anne Ridley, Jasmin Durakovic, Robert Hofferer, Diana Kamal-al Din, Rashed Radwan, Yousef Wehbi, Ahmed Boulane, Basil al-Khatib, Saddam Wahidi Melika, Zairi Alper Akdeniz, Thomas Hayes, Daz Chandler and many others.

This year the deadline for submissions is October 21, 2020 and the event date is scheduled for November 21-27, 2020. Independent filmmakers around the world are welcome to submit documentaries, short and feature, as well as animated films relevant to the festival topics, that will be evaluated by the competitive jury and the best ones will be awarded. Workshops and professional panels related to the topics of the festival will be also organized probably online.