Asghar Farhadi

Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film director and screenwriter, considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Iranian cinema as well as world cinema in the 21st century. ¹ He is one of the few directors worldwide to have won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film twice, for A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016); in 2012 he was included on the Time 100 list and received the Legion of Honour from France. ¹ No two independent sources attest a specific affiliation for him: the English article names no religion, while Wikidata alone lists Islam, Shia Islam and Twelver Shiism — claims of a single source, which the museum's counting rule does not accept on their own — so his data record leaves his faith as unknown. ^{1 2}

Farhadi was born on 7 May 1972 in Homayoon Shahr, a city in Isfahan province near Isfahan. ¹ At 15, in 1987, he joined the Isfahan branch of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society and made several short films. ¹ He graduated in theatre, with a BA in dramatic arts from the University of Tehran and an MA in stage direction from Tarbiat Modares University, wrote plays and screenplays for IRIB, and co-wrote Ebrahim Hatamikia's Low Heights (2002). ¹

His feature debut, Dancing in the Dust (2003), about a man struggling to raise money for his marriage dowry instalments, won three awards at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. ¹ The Beautiful City (2004), about a young man in a detention centre sentenced for murder, won the Grand Prix at the Warsaw Film Festival and was praised for its commentary on Iran's judicial system, and Fireworks Wednesday (2006) won the Gold Hugo at Chicago. ¹ About Elly (2009), about a group trip to the Caspian Sea that turns tragic, won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin and Best Picture at Tribeca. ¹

A Separation premiered at the Fajr festival and then won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the first Iranian film to win that award; on 26 February 2012 it became the first Iranian movie to win the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, making Farhadi the first Iranian to win an Academy Award in a competitive category. ¹ The Past (2013), his first French-language film, competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, where Bérénice Bejo won Best Actress. ¹ The Salesman (2016) won Best Screenplay and Best Actor at Cannes, and on 26 February 2017 Farhadi won his second Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. ¹

Following the United States president's executive order barring Iranians from entering the country, Farhadi said he would not attend the 2017 Academy Awards despite his nomination and win, and two prominent Iranian Americans, Anousheh Ansari and Firouz Naderi, represented him at the ceremony. ¹ His prepared statement, read by Ansari, said in part: "My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into us and our enemies categories creates fear... Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions." ¹ Before the ceremony, all five directors nominated in the category issued a joint statement condemning "the climate of fanaticism and nationalism" in the United States, among other countries. ¹

Everybody Knows (2018), a Spanish-language psychological thriller with Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Ricardo Darín, opened the Cannes competition. ¹ A Hero (2021), shot in Iran, won the Cannes Grand Prix and was Iran's submission for the 94th Academy Awards. ¹ This section sets out the plagiarism case as the sources report it; it is not a verdict by the museum. Azadeh Masihzadeh, a former film student of Farhadi, alleged that A Hero stole its premise from her earlier documentary All Winners, All Losers, about a debtor-prison inmate who found a bag of gold coins on leave and returned them; Farhadi denied the allegation, and the parties sued and countersued. ¹ In April 2022 The Hollywood Reporter mistakenly reported that Farhadi had been found guilty, when in fact he had been indicted; The New Yorker published a long account of the case in October 2022. ¹ In March 2024 an Iranian court issued a verdict acquitting Farhadi of the plagiarism allegations, based on review by several University of Tehran copyright law experts and other experts, who treated the underlying real event and its news coverage as public domain. ¹

Farhadi married the director Parisa Bakhtavar in 1990; they have two children, including the actress Sarina Farhadi, who appeared in A Separation and A Hero. ^{1 2}

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