Annual Festival of Films from Iran

About the Event

Schedule of Events

5:45 pm: A Separation

"A Separation could hardly be more concrete, or contemporary, or dramatic." - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

"Beyond the impeccable performances and direction, it's foremost an exceptional piece of screenwriting, so finely wrought that the drama seems guided by an invisible hand" - Scott Tobias, AV Club

Presented originally at the Film Center in 2011, A Separation, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, followed a tradition of the Film Center showcasing Farhadi's work. When first presented, Barbara Scharres wrote, "A Separation is a deftly plotted drama in which small evasions and white lies yield devastating consequences when two families of differing classes clash over seemingly irreparable wrongs. A couple seeks a divorce so that she may emigrate with their young daughter, but, with the divorce denied, they separate. An escalating series of disasters grows from the husband's fateful decision to hire the wife of an unemployed shoemaker as the caregiver for his elderly Alzheimer's-stricken father."

Awards & Nominations
Winner - Best International Film, Academy Awards
Nominee - Best Original Screenplay, Academy Awards
Winner - Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival
Winner - Silver Bear, Best Actor (Payman Maadi, Shahab Hosseini, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Babak Karimi), Berlin Film Festival

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8:15 pm: Manuscripts Don't Burn

"The most important moviegoing experience of the year." - Eric Cohn, Indiewire

"Demands to be seen as widely as possible." - Jonathan Romney, Screen International

When The Seed Of The Sacred Film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May, Mohammad Rasoulof's attendance at the screening was miraculous, as he had fled Iran to be there, after intense interrogation by Iranian authorities. An artist who has faced significant censorship, Manuscripts Don't Burn was first presented at our 25th festival, when Barbara Scharres wrote, "Laboring under a 20-year ban from filmmaking, director Rasoulof takes a dangerous step with this fictional yet fact-based political thriller steeped in darkest absurdity, as devoutly religious government thugs persecute two writers in pursuit of the galleys of a damning book."

Awards & Nominations
Winner - FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes Film Festival
Nominee - Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes Film Festival
Winner - Political Film Award, Hamburg Film Festival

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