Arta Barzanji is a London-based Iranian filmmaker, critic and curator. He is currently undertaking an AHRC/TECHNE-funded PhD in Film at the University of Roehampton, where his research examines film criticism and dialectical thought through written and audiovisual practice.

His curatorial projects include Cinema-ye Azad (Free Cinema), an ongoing research and exhibition project recovering Iran’s independent 8mm filmmaking movement; Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema and In Focus: Amir Naderi at the Institute of Contemporary Arts; and the year-long Not By Lynch: The Lynchian Before and After David Lynch at London’s Cinema Museum. His programmes have also been presented at UCLA Film & Television Archive, Barbican and Cube Cinema, with a new Cinema-ye Azad selection forthcoming at IFFR in 2027.

His writing has appeared in MUBI Notebook, Cineaste, Art Monthly, Metrograph, Sabzian and Documentary Magazine, with forthcoming book chapters from Edinburgh University Press and Routledge. His current film project is the documentary Unfinished: Kamran Shirdel.

Contact: barzanjia[at]roehampton[dot]ac[dot]uk

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