Iranian Director 'Asghar Farhadi' Wins First EU Media Prize at Cannes Film Festival

Asghar farhadi wins an oscar

    Iranian director Asghar Farhadi was awarded  the first European Union  Media prize to the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi on Sunday, 20 May 2012 at the Cannes Film Festival.
   Asghar Farhadi, known in Europe and throughout the world for his films “About Elly” (which won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009) and “A Separation” (which won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012) was awarded the EU Media prize  with a $77,000 cash award for his new project which will be filmed in France next autumn.

   “I am proud to give this award to Mr Farhadi today for this film project which has a strong cultural identity and illustrates the openness of European culture, which I defend daily. After the worldwide success of his masterpiece “A Separation”, he gives us a project which is committed and moving in equal measure and above all draws on universality" said Ms Vassiliou,EU official .

     Asghar Farhadi said, “In these times when certain politicians are trying to turn the beautiful rainbow of cultural diversity in the world into differences and confrontations, I believe that this Media  award for my next film project is a very encouraging sign. I would therefore like to warmly thank the Media programme, and commend it for its lucid and open vision of mutual and respectful exchanges between cultures.”

      The Media prize is awarded for the best project with box-office potential submitted by a screenwriter and a production company. The project is selected from the applications submitted for development support for 2012.