TEHRAN – Asghar Farhadi’s latest film “Parallel Tales” won an award at the 13th Silk Road International Film Festival in China.
At the closing ceremony of the festival, held in Xi’an on September 23, the film won the Best Screenplay award, ISNA reported.
Co-written by Asghar Farhadi and his brother Saeed Farhadi, “Parallel Tales” had its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival and received a warm welcome from the enthusiastic audience, who gave it a seven-minute ovation.
The new film by the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker was shot in Paris during fall 2025. It was released in French theaters concurrently with its Cannes unveiling.
The film’s stellar cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa.
Taking its cue from an episode in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s television series “Dekalog,” the Paris-set drama stars Huppert as a reclusive writer who spies incessantly on her neighbors (Cassel, Efira, and Niney) across the street and weaves imaginary stories around its occupants. Fact and fiction collide when a young homeless man (Bessa) hired as home help unleashes these stories into the real world.
“Parallel Tales” marks Farhadi’s second French-language film after “The Past” with Berenice Bejo, who won the Best Actress award for her performance at Cannes in 2013.
A French-Italian-Belgian coproduction, the film is produced by long-time collaborator Alexandre Mallet-Guy alongside Farhadi and David Levine.
It is the fifth collaboration between Farhadi and Memento Production after “The Past,” Oscar-winner “The Salesman,” “Everybody Knows,” and “A Hero”.
One of Iran’s most prominent cinematic voices, Farhadi, 54, is known for his thought-provoking films that explore social issues.
He won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2012 for “A Separation” (which was also nominated for Best Screenplay) and once again in 2017 for “The Salesman”.
He has been selected four times in competition at Cannes with “The Past,” “The Salesman,” “Everybody Knows,” and “A Hero”.
“The Salesman” won Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards at Cannes in 2016, and “A Hero” scooped the Grand Prize at the 2021 festival.
“Everybody Knows,” Farhadi’s Spanish-language debut starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, opened and competed at Cannes in 2018.
Farhadi was also selected twice in Berlin. He was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2009 for “About Elly” and the 2011 Golden Bear for “A Separation”.
On September 19, the 13th Silk Road International Film Festival opened in Xi’an under the theme “Silk Road Connects the World, Light and Shadow Shine over Chang’an”.
It received 2,130 entries from 139 countries and regions, with 23 works shortlisted for the final evaluation of the Golden Silk Road Awards.
The festival hosted a series of events focusing on international co-production, industrial cooperation, micro-dramas and virtual reality films.
The Silk Road International Film Festival (SRIFF) was founded by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television in 2014 to comprehensively implement China’s national strategy of The Belt and Road Initiative. It aims to promote cultural exchanges and cooperation among countries along The Belt and Road routes and to further develop the Chinese audiovisual industry.
SRIFF is held annually (alternating every year between the cities of Xi’an and Fuzhou) and is co-sponsored by the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government and Fujian Provincial People’s Government.
It is divided into the following sections and a mutable number of special presentations: Competition, Film Panorama, Film Forum, Film Market, Interactive Activities.
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