OFCS nominates ‘The Salesman’ for foreign language film list

The 20th edition of the annual film awards held by Online Film Critic Society (OFCS) has nominated Iran’s ‘The Salesman’ for the Best Foreign Language Film.

The award organizers announced on Tuesday that the list of nominees include ‘Toni Erdmann’ from Germany, ‘The Handmaiden’ from South Korea, ‘Elle’ from France, ‘The Salesman’ from Iran, and ‘Neruda’ from Chile.

This comes as the National Board of Review in New York has recently selected ‘The Salesman’ as the best foreign language film of the year.

The film tells the story of a young couple named Emad (the husband, portrayed by Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (the wife, portrayed by Taraneh Alidoosti) who move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. But an incident linked to the previous tenant dramatically changes their life.

Being Iran’s submission to the 89th Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category, the film has already won double awards for best screenplay and best actor at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Farhdi's most famous movie, ‘A Separation’, grabbed global recognition as becoming the first Iranian movie to win an Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

“This year’s nominations and films recognized represent the rich variety of films on the global stage in 2016,” Online Film Critics Society’s Governing Committee said.

More than 150 titles were long listed for Best Picture, more than 100 for Best Foreign Language Film and more than 30 titles for Best Animated Feature.

Founded in 1997, OFCS is an international professional association of online film journalists, historians and scholars who publish their work on the World Wide Web.

MG/HY