A total number of 13 films were in the running for prizes in this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival competition, but it doesn’t appear to have been much of a contest at all. In a stunning sweep, Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature ‘Beginning’ took four of the jury’s seven prizes, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress for star Ia Sukhitashvili, and finally the Golden Shell for Best Film.

Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan said in a press conference on World Tourism Day that the tourism sector provides impetus to economic development in rural areas, which is in dire need of economic activity. Tourism not only helps in empowerment of rural communities by generating employment and boosting trade, but also enables communities to protect their heritage and allows other people to experience their incredible cultures and traditions.

Concurrent with the closing ceremony of the 16th Resistance International Film Festival, three veteran Iranian artists, Jamshid Hashempour, Jamal Shoorje, and Mohsen Ali-Akbari were honored.

Iran’s tourism brand was unveiled on September 27, World Tourism Day.

A total of 1,580 cultural relics have been discovered during an archeological dig in southwest China's Yunnan Province, along with 128 individual structures, according to the local cultural relics and archaeology research institute.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for focusing on tourism’s importance for people living in rural areas, so they can deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave nobody behind.

Two sections of Resistance International Film Festival (RIFF) ‘Health Defenders’ and ‘Festival of Festivals’ announced their nominations.

The winners of this year’s Nobel Prizes will miss out on a swanky gala in Stockholm surrounded by royalty and Sweden’s glitterati, but 2020 will at least not be added to the war years when no awards were given.

Arts & Culture Desk

Compiled from Dispatches