Iranian director Asghar Farhadi manages to both enlighten and mystify. Maybe that's why he's been able to evade both the censors and jailers who polic...
Charlotte Safavi | Posted 05.22.2012
This week I watched two very different Iranian worlds depicted in the powerful medium of film: one reality meticulously masked as fiction, one semi-fiction frivolously packaged as reality.
Michael Vazquez | Posted 05.12.2012
At the New York Film Festival, three instant classics of engagé cinema -- one from Egypt and two from Iran (including BFF Oscar-winner A Separation) -- quite stunningly took on the weight of history.
AP | By NASSER KARIMI | Posted 03.12.2012
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian authorities canceled a ceremony Monday in honor of the country's Oscar-winning director even though the government had hailed ...
Leonard Maltin | Posted 05.01.2012
The Oscars may be history, but I'm happy to report that this year's Documentary award winner and three of its Foreign Language Film nominees are now ...
Susan Celia Greenfield | Posted 05.01.2012
The bad mother-daughter bond is an old familiar story. And I mean old. Throughout narrative history, mother characters have been evil or dead or both.
AP | By NASSER KARIMI and BRIAN MURPHY | Posted 04.29.2012
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran hailed the country's first Oscar-winning film as a triumph over arch-foe Israel on Monday after an Academy Award race with its ow...
Nathan Gardels | Posted 04.30.2012
Unsuspectingly, Sunday night's Academy Awards turned into a kind of prism of global politics as Oscars were given out to Iranian and Pakistani films as well as to a film produced by a French director with French actors financed with French subsidies.
Hadi Ghaemi | Posted 04.30.2012
It was momentous that an Iranian artist reflected the voice of so many Iranians at a venue as important as the Oscars, where millions of people watched his speech.
E. Nina Rothe | Posted 04.28.2012
To say that the 75-minute documentary radically changed my viewpoint on some modern-day dogmas would be an understatement and all the while managing to make me laugh, cry and relish in the wonder of Panahi's world
HuffingtonPost.com | Joshua Hersh | Posted 02.26.2012
The director of the Iranian film "A Separation," which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film Sunday night, delivered a heartfelt plea for the p...
HuffingtonPost.com | Lucas Kavner | Posted 02.23.2012
On Sunday, the films "A Separation" and "Footnote" will compete against one another in the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards. Though th...
David Wallechinsky | Posted 04.22.2012
I saw 50 of the 63 films entered in the Best Foreign Language Film category and I am happy to report that this was an exceptionally good year. If no single masterpiece stood out, there were a couple dozen good films that I would recommend for film fans of various tastes.
Maryam Zar | Posted 03.26.2012
Indulge for a moment, in a little imagination: It is January 2013 and the Western hemisphere's embargo on Iranian oil has begun to have an impact on the nation's economy.
Posted 01.24.2012
From "Kramer vs. Kramer" to the wine-fueled misadventures of divorcee Miles in "Sideways," Oscar voters have long favored films that deal with divorce...
The Huffington Post | Gazelle Emami | Posted 01.24.2012
The 2012 Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning with a sad upset (no Michael Fassbender) a few happy ones ("The Tree of Life"!), and one big...
Posted 01.18.2012
Not an institution to be outdone by the Golden Globes, the Academy has released their shortlist for best foreign language films, and only Sunday's win...
HuffingtonPost.com | Gazelle Emami | Posted 01.17.2012
Asghar Farhadi did not shake Madonna's hand when she presented him with a Golden Globe for best foreign film Sunday night. He had done just that two d...
AP | By NASSER KARIMI | Posted 01.16.2012
TEHRAN, Iran -- One of Iran's most prominent film directors said Monday he hoped the Golden Globes award to a fellow filmmaker will help lift the spir...
Michael Russnow | Posted 03.17.2012
It's oddly intriguing that a lackluster show and a diluted dose of Ricky Gervais appeals to me greater than his shockmeister two prior appearances.
Leonard Maltin | Posted 03.06.2012
By Leonard Maltin Traditionally, January releases are nothing to shout about, since most moviegoers are still busy catching up with the Big Guns of ...
Marshall Fine | Posted 02.27.2012
Family dynamics make for potent drama -- and few films this year have used that idea to better effect than Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, which made my 10-best list for 2011.
E. Nina Rothe | Posted 02.26.2012
A Separation is not the story of a couple falling out of love, but a commentary on a society that has already lost its direction, and only lives in the opposing, inhuman corners of right and wrong.
Marshall Fine | Posted 02.11.2012
The Descendants is my favorite film of the year for its ability to find the pain, dignity and humor in the story of a man watching his way of life die, even as he has to act as steward to its demise.
Leonard Maltin | Posted 01.31.2012
It takes the better part of a year to survive the continuous stream of mediocre movies (and worse) so we can finally get to "the good stuff." Now that we have a bounty of first-rate movies to choose from, we have to insulate ourselves from the awards-season hype that touts good films as great and fine performances as brilliant. Seasoned moviegoers—and critics—have their work cut out for them.
Brad Balfour | Posted 04.03.2012