Rank the films of Asghar Farhadi — Iran's two-time Academy Award-winning director whose morally complex dramas have made him one of cinema's most celebrated voices.
1Dancing in the DustFarhadi's 2003 debut feature, a tense rural drama about a young man forced to marry under pressure from his family, establishing his gift for moral ambiguity.
2Beautiful CityA 2004 Iranian drama centered on a teenager on death row and the desperate efforts of his friend and sister to secure his pardon before execution.
3Fireworks WednesdayFarhadi's 2006 domestic thriller in which a housekeeper becomes entangled in a couple's crumbling marriage amid the noise of Iranian New Year celebrations.
4About EllyThe 2009 mystery about a group trip to the Caspian Sea that turns tragic, brilliantly dissecting how ordinary people construct lies to protect their reputations.
5A SeparationFarhadi's 2011 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, a morally complex divorce drama that became the first Iranian film to win the Oscar.
6The PastFarhadi's 2013 French-language drama about an Iranian man returning to Paris to finalize his divorce, discovering layered secrets that unravel everyone around him.
7The SalesmanWinner of a second Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this 2016 Tehran-set drama parallels Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman with a harrowing assault storyline.
8Everybody KnowsFarhadi's 2018 Spanish-language thriller starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, about a kidnapping that tears apart a tight-knit community's long-buried secrets.
9A HeroThe 2021 Grand Prix winner at Cannes, a razor-sharp moral tale about an imprisoned man's act of honesty that spirals into an unexpected public relations crisis.
10Parallel TalesFarhadi's 2026 French-language film premiering at Cannes, assembling an all-star cast including Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve in his most ambitious European work.
