Golshifteh Farahani will receive the Locarno Film Festival’s prestigious Excellence Award Davide Campari on Aug. 6, 2025.
Farahani will present her recent film, Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha,” which premiered this year in competition at Cannes. She will also take part in a public conversation with the festival audience.
Born in Tehran in 1983, Farahani’s got her breakthrough role in Dariush Mehrjui’s “The Pear Tree” back in 1998. Since then, she has appeared in Abbas Kiarostami’s “Shirin,” Asghar Farhadi’s “About Elly,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” Ridley Scott’s spy thriller “Body of Lies” or even in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, starring in “Dead Men Tell No Tales.”
In 2017, she came to Locarno to present the Rajasthan-set “The Song of Scorpions” on the Piazza Grande.
“Sometimes you can separate yourself from the character, and sometimes you can’t. The character’s curse can capture you and you’re a prisoner of the pain they’re experiencing. I’m not a method actor. I don’t bring my characters back home, but a character’s feelings and sensations can stick to your skin, or sometimes they come back on your body, or as a sickness,” she told Variety when interviewed about the film.
“The reason I work in cinema is the message that the cinema is carrying. These scripts come to me and they are stories that need to be told. Of course, it is killing me. I love pushing myself to the edges to challenge myself and see if I can manage things that seem impossible. Whatever seems impossible, I have to make it possible. The most important thing is that you have to give yourself fully, and be ready to die for any part you are playing.”
She added: “I find balance in work. I find comfort in the complete discomfort of working. but my mecca of joy is what I do, and I’m committed entirely to it. I’ve lost my country, I’ve lost my comfort, my family, almost everything because of this work. That is what it is, it’s me.”
“All Golshifteh Farahani’s performances are distinguished by their emotional depth, her instinctive intelligence and her ferocious commitment to the core of her characters, making her a beloved figure among audiences and filmmakers alike,” stated the festival organizers, with Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro calling her a “key figure in contemporary cinema.”
“Charismatic and multifaceted, she has been able to immerse herself in very different contexts and roles, guided by her extraordinary talent and generosity as an artist. Over the years, she has managed to alternate between arthouse films and blockbusters, infusing each film with a new aspect of her personality,” he said.
“Honoring Golshifteh Farahani means celebrating an extraordinary artist who has left a deep mark on the eyes and hearts of every film lover.”
Previously, the Excellence Award went to Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Michel Piccoli, Anjelica Huston, Carmen Maura, Isabelle Huppert, Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Rampling, Giancarlo Giannini, Edward Norton, Bill Pullman, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ethan Hawke, Song Kang-Ho, Laetitia Casta, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Riz Ahmed, and, in 2024, Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet.
The 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place over Aug. 6–16.