“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,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of cinema, Asghar Farhadi will be honoured with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival. The acclaimed Iranian director and screenwriter will accept the award in person, while a retrospective of his work will be presented as part of the Festival’s Tribute To programme.
Farhadi returns to Sarajevo eight years after serving as President of the Jury for the Feature Film Competition at the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival in 2018, where his film Everybody Knows was screened in the Open Air programme.
“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. We are honoured to welcome Farhadi back to the Festival and to present him with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema when he was a teenager and 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 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 less than seventy 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 (Shahab Hosseini). The film became Farhadi’s biggest success and earned him the second Academy Award® of his career. The film, A Hero (2021) won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
And his latest film, Parallel Tales, shot in France, was screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 August 2026.
