Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi receives EU MEDIA prize

TEHRAN,May 22(MNA) -- Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi received the first EU MEDIA prize for his new project during ceremony, which was held on the sidelines of the 65th Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. The prize has been established by the European Commission and is awarded for the best project with box-office potential submitted by a screenwriter and a production company. Farhadi’s producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy of Memento Films was also awarded at the ceremony. Farhadi’s next project, which is still untitled, will be a love story between an Iranian girl and a boy of North African origin. It is scheduled to be shot in Paris in autumn. It is hard to talk about a film that has not been produced yet, Frahadi said after receiving the award from Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, “This film will enjoy actors like Marion Cotillard, Taher Rahim, and an Iranian star, which will join us later. Thus, I can be hopeful that it will be warmly welcomed by filmgoers in the world,” he added. Iranian cineastes Gholamreza Musavi, Ali Mo’allem, Seifollah Samadian, Mohammad Atebbaii and a number of students of Farhadi’s filmmaking workshop attending the ceremony. Frarhadi’s latest film “A Separation” won an Oscar, Golden Globe and French César for best foreign film earlier this year as well Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2011.