‘Salesman’ Wins US Award

The National Board of Review (NBR) in the US has named Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’ as the Best Foreign Language Film of 2016.

The NBR on November 29 announced its 2016 winners and Farhadi’s acclaimed movie won the award early in the awards season. It gets one step closer to winning the Oscar, which is the last film award of the year, due on February 26, 2017, Mehr News Agency reported.

The film awards season is an annual time period between November and February every year, in the US, where a majority of important film award events take place.

In 2011 and 2013 also, Farhadi’s films won the same award of the NBR: in 2013, ‘The Past’ and in 2011, ‘A Separation’. The latter won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

‘The Salesman’ debuted at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May and scooped two awards, the best screenplay for Farhadi and the best actor for Shahab Hosseini. Later the movie won more awards including the ARRI/Osram Award for the best international film at the Munich International Film Festival in July.

Iran’s official submission to the Academy Awards, ‘The Salesman’ has become the highest-grossing movie of all time in Iran, taking in over $4.2 million in the box office after three months showing across the country.

Its international screening started from France in November and has been welcomed by the French audience as well. It will be shown in over 30 countries in the coming months.

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema.

To determine the NBR’s annual awards, ballots are sent in by over one hundred members - select knowledgeable film enthusiasts, academics, filmmakers, and students in the New York metropolitan area - and subsequently tabulated by a certified public accountancy firm in order to decide the winners.

The organization’s annual gala will be held in January 2017.