Hawzah News Agency- According to Mohsen Houshmand, in its second round, the festival has witnessed a massive turnout as had been predicted, and there is a tremendous rise both in participation and the number of submitted works.
The media expert pointed to the expiry of submitting deadline, stating: “The aggregated figure shows that 3,127 works have been submitted to the Secretariat. These include 773 works in News and Media section, 850 in Multimedia, 484 in Social Media, 593 in Photos and Graphics, 54 in Theses and Dissertations, and 373 in International section”.
Speaking about the unprecedented surge in the number of participants, Houshmand noted: “The considerable rise in participation can be attributed to the increased awareness of the public, especially the media experts, about the second round of the event and its different sections. Also, the Communications and Media Center of Imam Reza holy shrine has used its full capacity to promote the festival. As a result, the number of people taking part has increased by 65 percent compared to the first round, reaching 1001 (558 men and 443 women)”.
The secretary of the festival further gave detailed statistics about participation from all 31 provinces of the country. In the list, Khorasan Razavi Province came up first with 829 submitted works, Tehran and Isfahan provinces ranked second and third with 475 and 445 works respectively.
Speaking about the international submitted works, Houshmand named countries such as Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and England, which together sent 40 news reports, 25 animations and motion graphics, 41 music videos, etc.
The refereeing stage of the event is currently underway in two selection and judgment panels and the closing ceremony will be held from July 10 to 20.