Hadi Alipanah

Hadi Alipanah is the founder and editor of the Iranian short film magazine FiDAN.

Hadi Alipanah participated in “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, a first-ever poll of its kind as a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image. yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in collaboration with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, distributors, critics, and scholars worldwide to nominate 10 audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. This was Hadi Alipanah’s submission:

I believe that great films find their rightful place in the history of cinema. These lists, however, speak more about ourselves and the relationship we have with cinema. Through them, we share fragments of that private and ineffable bond with Cinema to others. It’s no coincidence that many friendships rooted in cinema and cinephilia begin with the exchange of lists like this.

— Hadi Alipanah

Movie	Original Title	Director	Country	Year
The House Is Black Khaneh siah ast	Forugh Farrokzhad	Iran	1963	22’
Seeing that you mentioned this film as an example was truly fascinating and exciting for me. Forugh’s poetic and multifaceted narration in the film remains, even after all these years, both striking and inventive. The film’s polyphonic structure, its ironic and bold tone—especially in the moments where it seems to hold God accountable—still stands as one of the pinnacles of short filmmaking.
La Jetée	Chris Marker	France	1962	28’
In every sense of the word, it is a perpetually fresh film—one that simultaneously expands the boundaries of short cinema. To this day, every essayistic film that is made seems, in some way, to pay homage to it.
Waiting Entezar	Amir Naderi	Iran	1974	43’
This film is a true embodiment of cinematic thirst. When I spoke with Amir Naderi, he told me that during the making of this film, he experienced a profound and indescribable transformation—not only in his emotional state but also in his understanding of cinema and what could be expressed through it. All it takes is a comparison between Naderi’s films before and after this one to grasp the full weight and meaning of his words.
Outer Space	Peter Tscherkassky	Austria	1999	11’
In this film, Peter Tscherkassky brings the cinematic apparatus into full material presence. It’s one of those rare works that unleashes the latent force embedded in the very concept of experimental cinema. The film hits like a tsunami, and experiencing it on the big screen is nothing short of a spiritual encounter.
Un Chien Andalou	Luis Buñuel	France	1928	21’
How many films can you name that fully embody an entire artistic style within the medium itself? This film is Surrealism incarnate—its spirit continues to echo through countless cinematic masterpieces to this day.
Meshes of the Afternoon	Alexander Hammid , Maya Deren	USA	1946	14’
I hope the fact that this film appears as the sixth entry in the list makes it clear that I’m not presenting these works in any particular order. Once again, we encounter a film whose rebellious spirit has been echoed time and again in countless masterpieces. And here’s a daring statement: this film gave us David Lynch.
Dokhtarbass Didn’t Want to be Alone دختربس نمی‌خواست تنها باشد	Naser Gholamrezai	Iran	1974	31’
You’ve probably never seen this film. I rediscovered it after years, during my research on the history of Iranian short films. Its biting narrative and the way it was made have influenced Iranian cinema for decades. And here’s another bold statement: if you want to know where Abbas Kiarostami’s poetic minimal realism originates, you need to see this short film.
The Whale Nhang	Hassan Bani Hashemi	Iran	1972	32’
Another film I found during my research on the history of Iranian short films. It features one of the most modernist narratives I’ve ever seen in a short film. The story weaves together history and the contemporary lives of its characters through a complex search for a missing friend. The revelation of the mother’s death—who happens to be the missing person’s mother—unfolds a hidden history of inequality and suffering endured by women in my country.
The Old Man and the Sea Старик и море	Aleksandr Petrov	Russia, Canada, Japan	1999	21’
This is one of the very first short films I ever saw on the big screen. Beyond all its artistic merits, these early cinematic experiences hold immense personal value for me. Including this film in the list is my tribute to all those formative encounters with cinema.
A Kind of Testament	Stephen Vuillemin	France	2023	16’
And a new film on this list—as a reminder that cinema, and especially the short film, still holds the power to enchant.