User:Negar Motevali

Production in Iran

   The history of animation in Iran can be dated back to the Bronze Age. A 5,200 earthenware goblet discovered in Burnt City in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, southeastern Iran, depicts a series of drawings of a goat that jumps toward a tree and eats its leaves. Similar forms of pottery with sequential pictures can also be found throughout medieval Islamic Persia. Such drawings are early examples of precursors to the history of animation in general.

Although the first signs of world animation have been seen in this land, today, animation has not been a money-making industry in Iran.

Animation in Iran, like countries such as Japan and the United States, did not become an industry in Iran, animation production in Iran is generally divided into several sections.

   The first is short fiction or experimental films with low personal and government budgets, which are the most important animation productions in Iran and are seen in international festivals, and the second is mass-produced TV series with government support. Third, feature films on specific, religious, and moral issues made with large budgets from government agencies. Fourth, small groups with limited personal budgets who personally invest in web series, series, and sometimes feature films.

There are 4 different government institutions to support Iranian filmmakers

1. Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (KANOON)
2. Documentary and Experimental Film Center
3. Saba center
4. OWJ, Arts and Media Organization

   One of the biggest animation studios In Iran, we refer to this center as “KANOON” and its oldest animation studio is in Iran. they work mostly in traditional Cel Animation and Stop Motion. Kanoon also organizes the Tehran Animation Festival.
   Kanoon was established in 1940 by the Queen of Iran, Farah Pahlavi, as a cultural center. Graphic artists and painters came together and produced the first Iranian art animations. In 1969, Kanoon sent Noureddin Zarrin Kelk to Belgium, and when he returned to Iran, he activated Kanoon's animation department, and Kanoon Cinema Center was born. The golden age of the center's productions was at this time when all films were made with government funding. The center continued to operate after the revolution, but due to the restrictions and policies of the managers, it never returned to its original golden age.