Highlights From the Ceremony Awarding the First-Class Order of Art to Alireza Davoodnejad

Inside the Seyfollah Dad Hall Ceremony

The event was held at the Seyfollah Dad Hall of the Cinema Organization, a venue associated with major events involving Iran’s film community.

According to reports, the ceremony brought together filmmakers, cinema managers, industry professionals and members of Davoodnejad’s family.

The atmosphere was described through a combination of formal speeches, personal recollections and tributes from colleagues.

Several figures spoke about Davoodnejad’s career before the award was presented.

One of the recurring themes was the idea that filmmaking was not simply Davoodnejad’s occupation but something deeper in his life and identity.

That idea was particularly emphasized by Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabaei-Nejad, Deputy for Supervision and Evaluation at the Cinema Organization.

According to reports, Tabatabaei-Nejad recalled walking with Davoodnejad approximately two decades earlier after leaving the Farabi Cinema Foundation. He used the memory to reflect on the difference between having a profession and having cinema as a defining vocation.

He argued that some occupations are defined by a particular workplace or professional setting, whereas a profession can become an integral part of a person’s identity.

In describing Davoodnejad’s relationship with cinema, he characterized filmmaking as his “pishé”, or vocation.

The point became one of the central observations of the ceremony: the recognition was not presented simply as an award for an individual film or a single achievement, but as recognition of a lifetime associated with cinema.

September 17, 2026 | 10:07 pm