good news iran: Iran’s ‘A Hero’ on preliminary list of 2022 BAFTA nominations

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has revealed its longlists of nominees across 24 categories for its upcoming film awards.

“No Time to Die”, “Belfast” and “West Side Story” are among the leading films announced on Wednesday following the first round of votes.

Iran’s “A Hero”, Japan’s “Drive My Car”, Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World”, Italy’s “The Hand of God”, Spain’s “Parallel Mothers”, and Finland’s “Compartment No. 6” and France’s “Titane”, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, are among the 15 films that will advance to the next round of voting in the BAFTA Best International Feature Film race.

Round Two voting, to determine the nominations in the member-voted categories, will open between Jan. 14-27. Nominations will be announced on Feb 3. This will be followed by Round Three voting, to determine the winners, which will open between Feb. 9 and March 8.

The BAFTA Awards are set to take place in central London on March 13.

Farhadi is a two-time Oscar winner for ‘A Separation’ and ‘The Salesman’. This is the fifth time he has represented Iran in the race, making him the joint-most submitted director from the country with Majid Majidi.

‘A Hero’ debuted at Cannes to strong reviews and won the festival’s Grand Prix prize in its main competition.

It tells the story of Rahim, imprisoned because unable to repay a debt. Amazon Studios has acquired US rights to the Iranian film.

Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Raana Azadivar, Fereshteh Sadr Orafai and Sarina Farhadi are among the cast members of the flick.

The film has also been screened at the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival in the UK, the 39th edition of the Miami International Film Festival in the US, the Film Festival Cologne in Germany, the 45th edition of the São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil and Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar.

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