Farhadi to Get Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Film Festival
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Asghar Farhadi will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug. 14-21), in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to the art of cinema."
- The festival will present a retrospective of Farhadi's filmography as part of its "Tribute To" program.
- Farhadi previously served as Sarajevo's feature-film competition jury president in 2018, when his film "Everybody Knows" screened in the festival's Open Air program.
- Festival director Jovan Marjanović said Farhadi's films "do not offer easy answers" and "invite us to look more closely, listen more carefully and engage with life's complexities."
- Farhadi won Academy Awards for "A Separation" (2011) and "The Salesman" (2016), and a Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale for "About Elly" (2009).
- His latest film "Parallel Tales," shot in France, screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Why it matters: The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo functions as a career-crowning honor for one of the most decorated Iranian filmmakers alive, and Sarajevo is collecting him just as his latest work ("Parallel Tales") premiered at Cannes — meaning the tribute frames an active, Cannes-relevant director rather than a retrospective one. For Sarajevo, landing a two-time Oscar winner and former jury president reinforces the festival's international prestige heading into its 32nd edition.
