Kianmehr Shabani

Kianmehr Shabani (born in Aban 1384 in Sari, Mazandaran, Iran) is an experimental and international filmmaker, writer, art consultant, and film researcher. He began his cinematic activities at the age of 15 with film criticism and artistic research. During his years of education, Shabani was selected as the Best Young Art Critic at Iranian cultural and artistic festivals for two consecutive years. He is regarded as one of the most important and accomplished filmmakers and researchers in Iran’s independent and alternative cinema, to the extent that the works he has produced have established a new and highly influential current within Iranian alternative cinema.

Shabani began filmmaking by creating the experimental short works “Taxi and Some Waste” and the essay film “Life”; works that later became part of his personal film archive. They were even distributed internationally and listed on global cinematic film platforms. As his professional activities continued, he seriously pursued video art, alternative media, and experimental cinema, while also engaging in research and educational activities in these fields. Over the past several years, he has worked as an instructor of experimental cinema, free cinema, and the study of experimental and alternative approaches to filmmaking.

Among his most important works is the short film “Jump, Gain, Fall”; a work that was accepted by festivals and programs including HRFFA in Albania, FREDD in France, FIFEJ in Tunisia, and Cinemancia in Colombia, and was subsequently included among the selected student short films at the 2025 OSCAR Academy Awards ( Preliminary Section). Shabani has also worked as a producer on the independent feature film “Crime and Punishment”; an alternative work in Iranian cinema that was produced on a limited budget and outside the mainstream film industry.

Following “Jump, Gain, Fall,” Shabani made “The Ideology of Two Cherries,” a hybrid work that combines experimental and narrative cinema. The film was accepted into programs and festivals including the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, FIN, LJMU, and Lima. “The Ideology of Two Cherries” was also screened in a limited and independent exhibition in Sari, the filmmaker’s hometown, where it received an enthusiastic response from audiences and was selected as the audience favorite in its screening program.

Alongside filmmaking, Shabani continues his work as an art critic, film researcher, instructor, and member of the cinematic media and cultural community, and has participated in and contributed to domestic and international art and film festivals. His primary focus is on independent, alternative, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. In this direction, he is interested in developing forms of independent filmmaking in Iran that engage with the realities and conditions of contemporary Iranian society.

His activities and works contribute to the expansion and continuation of independent and alternative approaches in contemporary Iranian cinema.