TEHRAN — Iran’s National Cinema Day was marked with a wide-ranging program at the Cinema Museum in Tehran that combined tributes to leading figures in the country’s film history with performances, film excerpts and discussion of the future of an industry now more than a century old.
The Sept. 17 ceremony, organized by the House of Cinema, followed a week of programs built around this year’s National Cinema Day, whose official date is Sept. 12, corresponding to 21 Shahrivar on the Iranian calendar. The 2026 program was held under the theme “Iranian Cinema, Narrating Tomorrow.”
Hosted by television presenter and writer Mansour Zabetian, the evening opened with a Qur’an recitation and the national anthem, followed by an excerpt from Presence and Absence, a program presented by actor Parviz Parastui in memory of children martyred by the U.S. in Minab.
The ceremony then moved between remembrance and celebration, using archival footage, live music and regional performances to revisit different chapters of Iranian cinema. Actor Kourosh Soleimani recalled the filmmakers of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s who shaped his generation’s relationship with cinema, while a Kurdish-language performance paid tribute to the late filmmaker Kiumars Pourahmad.
A separate memorial honored 

actor Akbar Abdi, with actors Hamid Jebelli and Iraj Tahmasb appearing on stage after a compilation of his performances. Another segment was devoted to director Nasser Taghvai, with actor Habib Rezaei discussing his films and a video presentation examining his work.
The program also emphasized the diversity of Iranian cultural traditions. Performances incorporated musical traditions from Iranian Kurdistan and southern Iran, while actors used regional languages and dialects in segments devoted to the country’s different cinematic and cultural landscapes.
For Homayoun Asadian, managing director of the House of Cinema, however, the significance of cinema extends beyond entertainment and artistic achievement. He said that Iranian films will provide an important record for future historians seeking to understand the present period.
“Iranian cinema is the narrator of the past, present and future,” Asadian said, adding that historians 50 years from now would turn to cinema when attempting to reconstruct the period.
His comments reflected one of the central ideas of this year’s observance: cinema as an archive of social experience. The program’s tributes to filmmakers and actors, along with screenings and archival material, placed contemporary filmmaking within a continuum stretching across generations.
Muhammad-Mehdi Asgarpour, chairman of the House of Cinema board, used the occasion to address the institutional structure of Iranian filmmaking. He said the country’s cinema, with more than a century of history, represented an important cultural asset but had been affected by extensive intervention from institutions outside the industry.
Asgarpour also called for a reassessment of the mechanisms governing film production and exhibition, arguing that the industry needs a clearer framework defining the responsibilities of the various bodies involved.
The week’s program also included plans to honor veteran figures and commemorate major filmmakers. The House of Cinema announced that its library and documentation center would be named after the late filmmaker Bahram Beyzaii, while its conference hall No. 2 would be named after Taghvai.