Two Iranian films picked for Sydney festival lineup
Two Iranian films will headline major sections of the 73rd Sydney Film Festival in June, with acclaimed directors Asghar Farhadi and Shahram Mokri carrying Iranian cinema’s international momentum into one of the Asia-Pacific region’s leading screen events.
Mokri’s latest feature, ‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit,’ has been selected for the festival’s “Festival Favorites” sidebar, continuing a global run that recently included Switzerland’s Fribourg International Film Festival, ISNA reported.
The Sydney Film Festival described the film as a work of magical realism in which “three narratives collide,” blending psychological ambiguity with layered storytelling, ISNA reported.
Written by Mokri and Nasim Ahmadpour, the film stars Babak Karimi and Hasti Mohammai and follows a woman whose reality begins to shift after an accident, plunging her into an unsettling and mysterious world. Shot in Tajikistan with a joint Iranian-Tajik cast, the production underscores expanding cultural links across Persian-speaking cinema. The film is distributed internationally by DreamLab Films, headed by Nasrin Mirshab.
Farhadi, meanwhile, will compete in Sydney’s main competition with his new French-language feature ‘Parallel Tales,’ shortly after its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition. The film brings together several prominent French actors, including Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Cassel.
Sydney Film Festival organizers said this year’s official competition, which carries a A$60,000 award for “audacious and cutting-edge” cinema, draws heavily from Cannes’ 2026 lineup.
The festival will run from June 3 to 14 across the Sydney Opera House and cinemas throughout the Australian city, showcasing 248 films from 81 countries.