Iran Daily - The multi-award winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi will be the recipient of the 2018 Stockholm Visionary Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival.


The Iranian director will be in Stockholm to accept the Bronze Horse and participate in question-and-answer sessions in conjunction with the screening of ‘Everybody Knows’ on November 9 at Skandia Movie Theater in Stockholm.

Farhadi is one of several artists to be honored during the 29th edition of the Stockholm festival, which this year has the theme of “democracy in danger.”

The psychological thriller, ‘Everybody Knows,’ stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Farhadi’s previous films include: ‘A Separation’ (2011) and ‘The Salesman’ (2016), both awarded with the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

The festival’s official website wrote, “Farhadi is one of world cinema’s greatest masters. He meticulously depicts contemporary issues in his films, and how these are reflected in close relationships. His stories subtly move between the sophisticated and the mysterious almost as naturally as they are inimitable. Farhadi has undeniably meant a lot to a new generation of Iranian filmmakers, as well as film lovers across the world. It is therefore a great honor to present the 2018 Stockholm Visionary Award to Farhadi.”

Director of the Stockholm festival Git Scheynius said, “We are incredibly proud of this year’s program, where we are presenting some of the best films of 2018. We have more female filmmakers in the line-up than ever and we are also focusing on democracy being challenged by populism and fake news.”

The Canadian director and screenwriter Mary Harron will be honored with this year’s Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award.

The recipient of the 2018 Stockholm Achievement Award is the iconic actress Gunnel Lindblom. The award ceremony will take place in conjunction with the screening of Margarethe von Trotta’s documentary, ‘Searching for Ingmar Bergman,’ on November 11.

Stockholm Visionary Award was instituted 2004 to note visionaries within modern film. Wes Anderson, Alejandro González-Iñárritu, Darren Aronofsky and Pablo Larrain are among the previous recipients of the festival.

The 29th Stockholm festival is scheduled to be held from November 7 to 18.

Meanwhile, Lumiere Film Festival in France also held a commemoration ceremony for the Spanish actor Javier Bardem. A selection of his films including Farhadi’s ‘Everybody Knows,’ ‘No Country for Old Man,’ and ‘Mondays in the Sun’ were screened.

The French festival opened on October 13 and will close on October 21 in Lyon, France.

IRNA, festival-lumiere.org, news.cision.com and stockholmfilmfestival.se contributed to this story.