Asghar Farhadi

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi will return to Cannes with his newest, Parallel Tales, which debuts at the fest and opens commercially in France this week. This year also marks the 15th anniversary of his fifth film as director, A Separation, which proved to be his international breakthrough.

Two-time nominee and Golden Globe winner Asghar Farhadi is an accomplished cinematic storyteller whose intimate films often revolve around the slow burn of inexorable emotional turmoil. His movies are triumphs of economy whose strength lies precisely in their narrative restraint, and they have garnered worldwide acclaim, not least the jury and screenwriting prizes previously won here in Cannes.

In 2012 the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi was awarded a Golden Globe for his film A Separation. With this universally acclaimed film Farhadi who started his career in the late 1990’s established himself as a major filmmaker coming out of Iran.

Directors Angelina Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey), Pedro Almodóvar (The Skin I Live In), Asghar Farhadi (A Separation), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (The Kid With a Bike) and Yimou Zhang (The Flowers of War) speak at the Golden Globe Foreign Language Nominee Panel Discussion at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, January 14, 2012.