Iranian Director Honoured as Part of Paris Cinema Festival

Submitted by Séamas on Wed 19/06/13

After its 12-day sojourn in Cannes for the festival, the capital of World Cinema has moved back to its home in Paris. To mark the event an honorific award was made to the now most French of Persian filmmakers, Asghar Farhadi.

According to Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, Farhadi is "a man who brings us closer to Iranian society, through his subtlety and refinement, full of delicate cultural observations".

"Your creation", he continues, "makes me think of Victor Hugo's words: "All human kind has rights to Paris" and you have a very special way of expressing things when you use Paris as a location."

Farhadi had recently returned from Cannes where he was celebrated for his new film Le Passé (The Past), a film shot entirely in the Paris area and in French. In Cannes, Le Passé received the best actress award for Bérénice Bejo and at the opulent salons of Paris city hall, Farhadi himself was awarded the city's gold medal, la Grande Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.

Farhadi receives Paris' gold medal

Paris Cinema Festival

The award ceremony took place during the press conference for the festival Paris Cinema, which will take place between June 28 and July 9, and will featuring about 200 films from all over the world, sprinkled over twelve cinemas located in all corners of Paris. Farhadi himself will be honoured with a retrospective at the sumptuously refurbished Louxor cinema in the lively multicultural neighbourhood of Barbés Rochechuart.

Most of the festival activities will be around the impressive Francois Mitterand National Library and the MK2 cinema complex there, including the innovative Paris Project. The Paris Project is an event that invites selected foreign film projects to Paris to pitch their cinematic desires to French producers and other local professionals. All hope to find the French partner to begin a creative journey that will ideally end in a short few years with an invitation to show their film in Cannes.

For full information have a look at the official festival website.

Séamas McSwiney is a film journalist with decades of experience and work published in some top international publications. He recently sent us special reports from the Cannes film festival, read more here.