Designing a Policy Model for Iranian Cinema to Promote its International Status

This research seeks to design a policy-making model for Iranian cinema to promote its international position

In terms of strategy, this study is qualitative and data-based theory research. To gather the required data, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 cultural policy specialists and cinema experts using a purposive method. The interviews were analyzed through coding to enumerate concepts, subcategories, and mail categories according to Strauss and Carbin’s paradigm model (2018). The researcher explored the validity of the model using a focus group study and measured reliability via reproducibility (reliability coefficient).

The policy-making model for Iranian cinema reached theoretical saturation as it consisted of 18 main categories, 50 subcategories, and 507 concepts. Causal conditions included the existence of legal problems in Iranian cinema, the dependence of cinema on the country’s political structure and government, financial and investment problems in cinema, and the lack of an integrated structure in this field. Background conditions included hardware and software problems in Iranian cinema and the mistrust between the Iranian political structure and cinema activists. Intervention conditions included the indifference of the political structure to globalization, the sanctions imposed on the country, lack of knowledge management in cinema regardless of the capacity of the media in the international cinema sector, and disregard for marketing and branding in cinema. Strategies included reviewing, reforming and formulation of legal issues, supporting the public sector in cinema, efforts to industrialize Iranian cinema, and domestic and foreign interactions and synergy in cinema. The obtained results proved that it is vital to strengthen Iran's public diplomacy in the world and improve the international position of Iranian cinema.

In conclusion, considering it an effective tool, Cinema can provide a fresh perspective to the international community as it helps expand the audience’s knowledge about the Iranian culture. Therefore, it neutralizes negative publicity advertised about Iran by foreign media.