News / Culture

Iran picks Oscar-winning Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’ for 2017 Academy Awards

Saturday, 17 September 2016 4:59 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 18 September 2016 6:16 AM ]

A screenshot of Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman

Iran has nominated The Salesman, a film by Iranian Oscar-winning Asghar Farhadi, as the country’s entry for Best Foreign Language film for 2017 Academy Awards.

A board comprising nine Iranian directors and producers chose Farhadi's drama on Saturday to represent Iran in next year’s Oscars.

After comprehensive deliberations and further discussions on the five shortlisted films, a strong majority of the board chose The Salesman (titled Foroushandeh in Persian) to compete in Best Foreign Language film in 2017 Oscars, the spokesman for the board, Amir Esfandiari said.

He expressed hope the movie would well represent Iran’s high cinematic capacities in the prestigious world competition.

The Salesman, which premiered in Iran on August 31, won two prizes in the Cannes Film Festival in May.

(From L) Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini, Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi pose as they arrive on May 21, 2016 for the screening of the film *The Salesman* at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. (Photo by AFP)

Lead protagonist Shahab Hosseini won a Palme d'Or for best actor and Farhadi scooped the best screenplay award during the 69th edition of the festival.