“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” received the Arab Critics’ Award in the European Film Category

Sacred Fig SeedIranian drama from an exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof won the top prize for best film at the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films.

The prize was announced at the Egyptian Film Festival in El Gouna. A jury of critics from 15 Arab countries chose Rasulov’s drama among 22 European productions. Sacred Fig Seed is a French-German-Iranian production and is German official entry for the 2025 Academy Awards at its best international function category.

The film, which portrays a conservative Iranian family falling apart amid political turmoil caused by women’s freedom protests, premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize and a Fipresci award from international film critics.

Rasoulof, a harsh critic of the Iranian regime (Rasoulof was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison in July 2022 for signing a petition calling on security forces to “put down their arms” and show restraint in response to street protests), shot the film in secret. Shortly before Cannes, having received an eight-year prison sentence, he fled the country on foot. Now he lives in Germany.

The Arab Critics’ Award for European Films was launched in 2019 by the European Film Promotion (EFP) and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) with the aim of promoting the diversity of films in Europe and increasing the Arab region’s film industry’s interest in outstanding European films. We hope that a jury of Arabic-speaking critics will help bridge cultural differences and offer a fresh perspective on European cinema. Previous winners of the Arab Critics Award include Aki Kaurismäki fallen leaves (2023), EO Jerzy Skolimowski (2022) and 107 mothers Peter Kerekes (2021).