Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s French-language drama The Past (Le Passé) has been nominated in five categories at France’s César Awards 2014.
Farhadi’s Paris-set film was named as nominee in the categories of best director and best original screenplay.
The Past is also slated to contend for the Best Feature Film Award of this year’s festival.
Me, Myself and Mum by Guillaume Gallienne, Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie, Nine Month-Stretch by Albert Dupontel and Venus in Fur by Roman Polanski are some of the competitors at the category.
The movie will also be vying with other nominees in both categories of best director and best original screenplay.
The 2014 César festival also nominated film’s star Berenice Bejo for best actress award. Bejo won the Palme d’Or for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 as well as top prize at the 2014 Palm Springs International Film Festival for her turn in The Past.
The film’s other cineaste Juliette Welfling has also received nomination in the category of best editing for her collaboration in Farhadi’s latest drama.
Farhadi’s immigrant romantic drama The Past is his sixth directorial experience and first one in a foreign country that was shot in the French capital, Paris.
The Past has been presented in many international film events and scooped numerous awards so far. Farhadi was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world by Time magazine in 2012.
His 2011 family drama A Separation won the César award for best foreign language film in 2012.
The film also became a sensation and received rave reviews from numerous international film events and festivals. The film won the award for the Best Foreign Language film at the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award in 2012.
Established in 1975, César film festival is considered the French equivalent of the American Academy Awards.
The 39th edition of César Awards is scheduled to take place during a ceremony on February 28, 2014.
