🔻Success at the Fajr Festival, as Iran's most important cinema festival, is a way to become known in this industry's ecosystem and to increase filmmakers' credibility and honors. But success at festivals has always also been a way for marketing and greater sales of winning films. One of the best advertisements for a work to be seen more is that it receive attention at reputable festivals.
🔻But it appears that at present the Fajr Festival does not have the power to bring a film to the peak of success at the time of general release. For example in 1401 (2022/23), the film "Ablaq" made by Narges Abyar, which at the Fajr Festival of 1399 (2020/21) had received the Simorgh for Best Film from the People's Perspective, in terms of the number of audience members stood at rank 6 and in terms of the amount of sales at rank 7 of the films of 1401 (2022/23).
🔻Also "Mogheiat-e Mahdi," which shone intensely at the festival, had a completely average performance at the box office. Instead, comedy films such as "Enferadi," "Bucharest," and "Dynamite" have been the most successful films at the box office. Other works such as "A Hero" have perhaps, because of the director's fame and success at foreign festivals such as the Oscars, been placed at the top of box office revenue.
🔻In fact, success at the Fajr Festival helps films' greater sales but is not necessarily a reliable way to conquer the box office.
See the original infographic (Persian)
Machine-translated from Persian by Namafar; the Persian original is authoritative. Read the original in Persian