TEHRAN – A new list titled “The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century” was published by The New York Times this week, with the 2011 Iranian drama film “A Separation” written and directed by Asghar Farhadi among the top 50.

Farhadi’s Oscar-winning movie is the only film from Iran that has found its way into the list and is ranked 33rd, Honaronline reported.

“A Separation” is placed above famous films in the list such as “Amélie” (2001) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (at 41st place), “Inception” (2010) by Christopher Nolan (55th), “Kill Bill” (2003, 2004) by Quentin Tarantino (61st), and “The Lord of the Rings” (2001-2003) by Peter Jackson (87th).

Starring Leila Hatami, Peyman Maadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, and Sarina Farhadi, “A Separation” is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage. 

Set in contemporary Iran, the film revolves around an Iranian middle-class couple. Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader, and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave his Alzheimer-suffering father behind. Her request having failed, Simin returns to her parents’ home, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader. When Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife’s absence, he hopes that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that there is more on the line than just his marriage.

The film premiered on 9 February 2011 at the 29th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran and won the Crystal Simorgh awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer, and Best Sound Recorder. It also received the Audience Favorite Film award.

“A Separation” won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award. It received the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Iranian film to win the Golden Bear. It also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature Film. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, making it the first non-English film in five years to achieve this.

The film has been met with universal acclaim from film critics. It currently holds a 99 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 176 reviews with an average rating of 8.90/10. The website's critical consensus states, “Morally complex, suspenseful, and consistently involving, 'A Separation' captures the messiness of a dissolving relationship with keen insight and searing intensity”. The site ranked it 24th on their “300 Best Movies of All Time” list in 2025. It has a score of 95 on Metacritic based on 41 reviews, making it the best-reviewed film of 2011.

Sight & Sound magazine included the film in its list of “30 great films of the 2000s”. “A Separation” was later named the ninth-greatest film of the 21st century in a 2016 BBC critics’ poll. In 2018, the film was ranked 21st in the BBC's list of “The 100 greatest foreign language films of all time”. In 2019, The Guardian ranked the film 36th in its “100 best films of the 21st century” list. In 2022, Sight and Sound ranked the film 72nd in its “Directors' 100 Greatest Films of All Time list”.

The New York Times polled more than 500 people while compiling this list. The participants were described as people who work in and around the film industry, such as screenwriters, directors, actors, and critics from around the world. Each was asked to name the 10 best movies released since January 1, 2000. Their votes were compiled to create a ranked list of the 100 films that have stood the test of time.

The top three films in the list include “Parasite” (2019) by Bong Joon Ho, “Mulholland Drive” (2001) by David Lynch, and “There Will Be Blood” (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The list is not just a celebration of beloved titles; it is a reflection of where cinema has gone in the last 25 years, across languages, borders, and genres.

SS/SAB