The members of the jury include the Indian musical composer and record producer A. R. Rahman, Ghanian-Belgian director Anthony Nti, Bangladeshi screenwriter and film critic Sadia Khalid Reeti, Italian filmmaker Maja Costa, and Russian festival producer Ekaterina Yakovleva, as well as Iranian filmmakers Ahmad Reza Motamedi and Masoud Madadi, IRNA reported.

A. R. Rahman is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema. He is popularly known as the man who has redefined contemporary Indian music. Rahman has sold more than 150 million copies of his work comprising music from more than 100 film soundtracks and albums across over half a dozen languages.

In 2008, Rahman's work gained global prominence with the extraordinary success of his score for “Slumdog Millionaire” that won eight Academy Awards including two for Rahman - Best Score and Best Song. Rahman won over 15 awards for this score including two Grammys, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. 

Rahman's music led him to be noticed internationally with several of his tracks featured in movies such as “The Lord of War,” “Inside Man” and “The Accidental Husband”. He also scored the music for Hollywood productions, “Elizabeth - The Golden Age,” “Couples Retreat,” “127 Hours,” “People Like Us,” “Warriors of Heaven & Earth,” “The 100 Foot Journey,” “Million Dollar Arm” and “Pele”.

He has also collaborated with the world-renowned Iranian directors Majid Majidi in two films, “Muhammad, the Messenger of God” and “Beyond the Clouds”.

Anthony Nti is a Ghanaian-born filmmaker from Belgium. After attending the Royal Institute of Theater, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) in Brussels, he went on to direct many commercials, music videos, and shorts. His first two short films “​Kwaku” and ​“Only Us​” picked up seven awards, including first prize at the Zanzibar Film Festival. 

His short “​BOI” ​(Fight), won the Critic Award and Best Debut at the Leuven Film Festival and the Jury and Public Prize at the Ghent Film Festival 2016. His 2019 short film “Da Yie” was shortlisted for the 93rd Academy Awards for Best Short Live Action and won the Grand Prix at the 42nd Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, becoming a hit at more than 200 film festivals all over the world. 

His first feature-length film “Postcard” won second prize at the Sam Spiegel FilmLab and the TV show “Clemenceau” was selected for Torino Series Lab. In 2020, he was listed as one of the most promising filmmakers in Belgium and the Netherlands by the NRC, Dutch national newspapers.

Sadia Khalid Reeti is a film critic and screenwriter. She studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has also worked as an entertainment journalist in Dhaka and Los Angeles since 2012. Currently the cultural editor of Dhaka Tribune, Sadia has served as a jury member at different international film festivals in Italy, India, England, Nepal, France, Russia, and Bangladesh. 

She served as a FIPRESCI jury at the Cannes Film Festival, International Film Festival of Kerala, and Dhaka International Film Festival. A Berlinale Talent Press alumna, she attended mentorship programs with Film Independent and Locarno Open Doors. She also teaches film studies at different universities and institutions and is the recipient of the Charles Wallace Fellowship from the British Council.

Maja Costa is a multilingual writer/​director. After studying Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Cello in Milan, she graduated in Screenwriting from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). She has collaborated with many European production companies and film festivals in several positions and currently works as a freelance screenwriter and director in Berlin. 

Ekaterina Yakovleva is the head of documentary broadcasting at Russia Today and general producer of the International Documentary Film Festival “RT.Doc: Time of Our Heroes”.

Yakovlova is a graduate of the School of Screenwriting and Film Studies of the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). She has produced more than 1,500 documentary films as the head of documentary broadcasting at Russia Today. She has also served as a member of the Expert Council of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation for selecting national non-fiction film projects. She has won dozens of awards at national and international festivals.

Ahmad Reza Motamedi earned a Master’s degree in economics and a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Tehran. He began his career as the screenwriter of the film “Companions” in 1993. For years, he has been involved in the theoretical field of art and philosophy of aesthetics in the media. He has written the scripts as well as directing “The Beautiful and The Hideous” (1998), “Rules of the Game” (2006) and “Alzheimer” (2010) among other films.

Motamedi is the founder of film philosophy in Iran and has a history of 43 years of teaching screenwriting, directing, art philosophy, film philosophy, cinema history and film criticism and training hundreds of students and filmmakers in his academic and film career. He has won several Crystal Simorgh awards from Fajr International Film Festival as well as some prestigious international awards.

Masoud Madadi is an Iranian cinematographer, director, writer, cinema teacher at the University of Arts and Soore University. Before turning to directing, he has worked as a cinematographer. One of the most famous films he has shot is Majid Majidi’s “The Color of Heaven” in 1999. Madadi made his directorial debut with “Dementia” (2012).

Madadi has served as a member of the filmmaking department of the Iranian Youth Cinema Association (IYCS) and the Supreme Production Council of the IYCS as well as the selection and judging committees of several national festivals.

This year’s edition of the Tehran International Short Film Festival received 13,651 submissions from more than 30 countries. The number of submitted films is a new record in the history of the event, about twice the number of submissions last year. Of the total submissions, 107 short films are competing for the top awards.

The line-up includes 59 short fiction films, 21 animated movies, 18 documentaries, and nine experimental films. The submitted works are from India, China, Poland, the U.S., Egypt, Greece, France, Palestine, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Cuba among others.

The TISFF has been held for 40 consecutive years in Iran, by the Iranian Youth Cinema Society (IYCS) – one of the most renowned schools of cinema and short film production in Iran and throughout the world. 

The festival is approved by the Academy Awards® (Oscars) and the winner of the Grand Prize becomes eligible for the Oscars.

Having launched on October 18 at Mellat Cineplex in Tehran, this year’s edition of the TISFF will run until October 23.