TEHRAN- The international wing of the 15th edition of the 100-Second Film Festival has officially commenced its activities under the theme "The Battle for the World’s Children."

Running alongside the main festival, this section focuses on the scars of war and its devastating impact on the future of children. With the welfare and destiny of the younger generation as its core mission, the international section has now begun its work.

To mark the occasion, Ali Akbar Jenabzadeh, Director of the International Section, has shared a poignant note titled "The Battle for the Future of the World’s Children," which you can read below:

"Last year, a wound was etched into our collective memory—a wound that began with a single image. It was not an image of a military base or a command center; it was a simple sports hall in the city of Lamerd. It was a place where children competed and young athletes dreamt of championships. A place where parents sat in the bleachers, cheering for every small victory as if it were the greatest achievement in the world. It was a place built for life.

But then, war arrived. In an instant, the echoes of laughter and cheering were replaced by dust, smoke, tungsten shrapnel, and silence. The hall that was once a sanctuary for dreams was turned into ruins. It was hard to fathom, but this tragedy forced us to face chilling questions: Had this civilian space become a testing ground? Had the US deployed new weaponry there—not just to destroy, but to showcase power and measure the efficiency of war machines at the cost of human lives?

When a sports hall becomes a showroom for power, when the lives of ordinary people are reduced to mere statistics, and when destruction becomes a tool for propaganda—what remains of our humanity?

This year, drawing from the bitter events in Minab and Lamerd, we turn our gaze toward those left grieving by war. We sit with fathers who still replay the sound of bombings and the screams of the crowd in their minds. We stand by mothers who walk past the rubble, remembering the days when their children would return home tired, laughing, and full of stories. We listen to coaches whose students never returned, and to neighbors who watched their city’s vibrant spaces turn into symbols of grief and loss.

These are people who might feel forgotten outside their small town. They might fear their sorrow has been buried under headlines, statistics, and the endless cycle of global conflict. But grief does not vanish when the cameras turn away. It lingers in empty seats, in left-behind jerseys, and in photographs that now carry a weight far heavier than before.

Countless families across the globe have witnessed the destruction of their everyday lives through the violence of war. They carry memories that cannot be rebuilt as easily as walls.

The International Section of the 15th 100-Second Film Festival aims to be a home for these voices. In this edition, we open our doors to stories that reveal how 'military language' has exacted a massive human toll. These are stories that question the catastrophes inflicted upon civilian lives by the ambition and power of aggressors. They are stories that refuse to let human suffering be reduced to a marketing opportunity for weaponry.

For those gathered in that hall, the stadium was never just a building. It was where friendships began. It was where dreams were nurtured. It was where futures were imagined.

Those futures mattered. those lives mattered. And those stories deserve to be told."