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Iranian screenwriter and director Asghar Farhadi, who won Oscars with “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” will be honored at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, which runs Aug. 14 to 21. The filmmaker will receive the Honorary
Heart of Sarajevo in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the art of cinema.”
A retrospective of his work will be presented as part of the festival’s “Tribute To” program.
Jovan Marjanović, director of the festival, said, “It is difficult to overstate Asghar Farhadi’s significance to world cinema. His remarkable body of work reminds us that the most profound dramas are often concealed within everyday life. His films do not offer easy answers; instead, they invite us to look more closely, listen more carefully and engage with life’s complexities.”
Farhadi served as Sarajevo’s president of the jury for the feature film competition in 2018, where his film “Everybody Knows” was screened in the Open Air program.
Farhadi’s interest in cinema began when he was a teenager and he started his education in filmmaking by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986, where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelor of Dramatic Arts at Tehran University in 1998 and his Masters in Stage Direction a few years later. He devoted his final thesis to Harold Pinter and in particular the importance of silence and pauses in the playwright’s work.
He made his directorial debut with “Dancing in the Dust” (2002). After the success of “About Elly” (2009), for which he won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale, Farhadi gained international recognition and critical acclaim with “A Separation” (2011), receiving no fewer than 70 awards, including an Academy Award and a César for best foreign film.
He then left Iran for France to shoot “The Past” (2013), which won Bérénice Bejo the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. He then returned to Iran to direct “The Salesman” (2016), which premiered in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where the film won best screenplay and best actor for Shahab Hosseini. The film became Farhadi’s biggest success and earned him the second Academy Award of his career.
His 2021 film “A Hero” won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. His latest film, “Parallel Tales,” shot in France, was screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
