Iran’s Farhadi loses Golden Globe race to Japan’s Hamaguchi

The other candidates at the foreign language category were ‘Compartment No. 6’ (Juho Kuosmanen, Finland), ‘The Hand of God’ (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy), and ‘Parallel Mothers’ (Pedro Almodovar, Spain).

“Drive My Car”, based on a short story of the same title by novelist Haruki Murakami, recently won the top prize and was selected for three other awards by a US film critic society, while it also won the award for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

On Saturday, members of the National Society of Film Critics gave the best picture, best director, best screenplay and best actor awards to “Drive My Car”.

The brooding and melancholic drama has also been nominated in the international feature film category for the 94th Academy Awards in March. “A Hero”, Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World”, Italy’s “The Hand of God” and Finland’s “Compartment No. 6” are among the 15 films that will advance to the next round of voting in the Oscars Best International Feature Film race, according to the Academy.

This was the fourth time the Iranian director is nominated for the foreign language film award at Golden Globe. His previous movies “A Separation”, “The Past” and “The Salesman” found their way into the final list in the category in 2012, 2014 and 2017, while “A Separation” won the award.

Farhadi has received two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film for “A Separation” and “The Salesman”, making him one of the few directors worldwide who have won the category twice.

The Iranian filmmaker has also received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay for “The Salesman”. In 2021, he received the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix for “A Hero”.