Asghar Farhadi will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at this year’s film festival.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of cinema, the acclaimed Iranian director and screenwriter will accept the award in person, and a retrospective of his work is set to be presented as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Tribute to program.
Farhadi returns to Sarajevo eight years after serving as jury president for the feature film competition in 2018. That year, his movie Everybody Knows screened in the Open Air program. He joins fellow Honorary Heart recipient Emily Watson, who is also serving as the fest’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 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.”
Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema when he was a teenager and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986, where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He devoted his final thesis at Tehran University to Harold Pinter, and in particular the importance of silence and pauses in the playwright’s work.
