Farhadi's Film Ranked Ninth Among the 100 Best Films of the 21st Century

The BBC World Service has introduced the 100 best films of the 21st century after polling 177 film critics worldwide. According to the results of this survey, David Lynch's film 'Mulholland Drive' from 2001 has been named the best film made in the current century so far. However, the interesting point for Iranian cinema enthusiasts is the presence of Asghar Farhadi's film 'A Separation' ranked 9th in this survey. Farhadi, who previously won awards such as the Oscar and Golden Globe for this film in 2012, has now achieved a status in this prestigious survey that no other Iranian filmmaker has experienced before. Additionally, two films by the recently deceased Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami are also included in this list: 'Certified Copy' at rank 46 and 'Ten' at rank 98. The survey also features acclaimed films from directors such as David Fincher ('Zodiac' at rank 12 and 'The Social Network' at rank 27), Christopher Nolan ('The Dark Knight' at rank 33 and 'Inception' at rank 51), Michael Haneke ('Amour' at rank 42), Steven Spielberg ('A.I. Artificial Intelligence' at rank 83), Lars von Trier ('Dogville' at rank 76), Jim Jarmusch ('Only Lovers Left Alive' at rank 72), and Martin Scorsese ('The Wolf of Wall Street' at rank 78). The BBC World Service had previously conducted a survey among 62 film critics from around the world regarding the best American film made throughout cinema history, which yielded somewhat surprising results. According to that survey, only 6 films made after 2000 were included in the top 100 selections. These surprising results prompted the cultural section of the service to conduct a survey among critics and professional cinema enthusiasts specifically judging films made in the 21st century (from the year 2000 onwards).