Acclaimed Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi to Receive Sarajevo’s Honorary Heart

Asghar Farhadi will be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo during this year’s film festival.

In acknowledgment of his outstanding contribution to cinema, the acclaimed Iranian director and screenwriter will receive the award in person, and a retrospective of his oeuvre will be showcased as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Tribute program.

Farhadi returns to Sarajevo eight years after serving as jury president for the feature‑film competition in 2018, when his film Everybody Knows was screened in the Open Air program. He joins Emily Watson, the previous Honorary Heart awardee, who will serve as the festival’s jury president in August.

“It is difficult to overstate Asghar Farhadi’s significance to world cinema,” said Jovan Marjanović, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival. “His remarkable body of work reminds us that the most profound dramas are often concealed in everyday life. His films do not provide easy answers; instead, they invite us to look more closely, listen more carefully, and engage with life’s complexities. We are honoured to welcome Farhadi back to the Festival.”

Born in 1972 in Iran, Farhadi developed an interest in cinema as a teenager and began his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986, where he created 8mm and 16mm short films. He completed his thesis at Tehran University on Harold Pinter, focusing on the importance of silence and pauses in the playwright’s work.

He made his directorial debut with Dancing in the Dust (2002). Following the success of About Elly (2009), for which he won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Director, Farhadi achieved international recognition and critical acclaim with A Separation (2011), which earned him the Oscar and César for Best Foreign Film. He then moved to France to direct The Past (2013), a film that earned Bérénice Bejo the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2013.

Farhadi returned to Iran to direct The Salesman (2016), which premiered in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Shahab Hosseini). The film became his biggest success and earned him a second Academy Award. His most recent works, A Hero (2021) and Parallel Tales (2026), also premiered at Cannes.

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival runs from August 14 to August 21.

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