Iran’s House of Cinema Holds Its 18th Annual Gala in Tehran

(Picture: Baran Kowsari (center) receiving her best female actress award from Roya Nonahali (right) and Massoud Keramati (right). Source: Majid Asgaripour/Mehr)

'Khaneh Cinema', The House of Cinema, Alliance of Iran's Motion Picture Guilds, held its eighteenth annual gala on Monday night in Tehran's National Garden in downtown Tehran. While the Fajr Festival Awards, administered by the Minister of Culture, is the most prestigious of cinema awards, a number of alternative events are held by non-governmental entities throughout the year, including the one held by Iran's supreme motion picture union on the National Day of Cinema. Select pics from news agencies follow.

Fusion band Pallet performs for the audience on the threshold of the Qajar-era edifice inside the National Garden.

Female superstar Mahnaz Afshar attending the gala without her husband Yasin Ramin.

New York-born actor and director Peyman Moaadi (right), and the new talent of Iranian cinema, self-proclaimed "Kurdish tiger" Navid Mohammadzadeh.

Actresses singing with Omid Nemati, vocalist of Pallet band. Female stars preferred to dress modestly this time after the hardliner weekly Lasarat roasted them in late July for their supposedly non-Islamic attire during another cinematic gala, Hafez Awards.

A moment of (one-sided) romance for Rambod Javan, director and host of the popular TV show 'Khandevaneh', and the camera.

Director Saeed Roustaei posing with his award. At only 26 years of age, he won the Fajr Festival Best Director Award for his critically-acclaimed Life without Parole.

Hotshot comedian Reza Attaran (left) with his trademark hat, sharing a laugh with multiple-award winner Reza Kianian (right).