Shahen Bazil

Shahen Bazil

Shahen Bazil is an Iranian-Armenian film acquisition expert, who has greatly affected the distribution of foreign films in Iran in the 1990’s and 2000’s. He was born in Tehran and studied architecture in the National University of Iran and later on English translating in Tehran’s Azad University. As a diploma work he translated Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time short story collection. He began his career as a film and programs acquisition executive in the Farabi Cinema Foundation in 1990 and worked there until 2003. At the same time he was actively involved with the Iranian Television Programs Office. He has cooperated with Tehran’s Fajr International Film Festival and participated in the film markets of Cannes, Berlin, London, Beirut, Cairo, Milan and other festivals. In 2003, he initiated the first private film rights acquisition in Iran for the state representation of the Visual Media Institute and later assumed the position of the head of the acquisition department in a private company called Century 21 Visual Media.