Farhadi awarded €60k to make Cotillard film

The European Union has awarded Iranian director Asghar Farhadi a cash prize to help fund his first European film, set to star Marion Cotillard.

Farhadi and his producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy were presented with the EU Media Prize on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival.

The €60,000 (Dh281,208) award goes to a project considered to have box-office potential.

Farhadi won this year's foreign-language Academy Award for A Separation. His next film will be shot in France with Cotillard, who won a best-actress Oscar for La Vie En Rose.

Farhadi didn't provide any more details.

He said that "when asked about a film that has already been made I haven't much to say".

"But I now realise it's even harder to talk about a film that hasn't even been made yet."