Have you spotted Golshifteh Farahani, the Locarno Excellence Awardee in Pirates of the Caribbean?

The 2025 edition of the Locarno film Festival is all set to award 42- year old actor Golshifteh Farahani with the Excellence Award Davide Campari. The Iranian – French star known worldwide for her roles in projects like Shirin, About Elly, Extraction and many more will be presented with the award during the opening of the Locarno Film Festival which would kick off with its 78^th edition on August 6, 2025.

Since the inception of the award, it has also been presented to awardees like Susan Sarandon, Willem Dafoe, Anjelica Huston, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Bill Pullman, Song Kang-Ho, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Riz Ahmed, and Guillaume Canet, to name a few. Ahead of Farahani receving the award, here’s a look at who the actor really is and where have you spotted her?

What do we know about the 2025 Locarno Excellence Awardee, Golshifteh Farahani?

The Locarno Film Festival will also screen her latest work titled Alpha. Directed by Julia Ducournau, Alpha was previously screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year in May. The Excellence Award Davide Campari is presented to those who have made a name for themselves in the field of cinema through their futuristic, visionary, iconic roles. Farahani, on her part has played with the balance between delivery arthouse cinema and commercial blockbusters.

Farahani, whose legal name is Rahavard chooses to be called Golshifteh by profession. She was born to Behzad Garahani, who was into theatre and Fahimeh Rahiminia who was an actor herself. Thus, she was exposed to the world of cinema and stage from a young age.

Her career started as a child artiste at the age of 14 when she was seen working in the award-winning film The Pear Tree. Thereafter, she went on to do pivotal roles in Body of Lies, The Patience Stone, Anna Karenina, Paterson, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales, Extraction and more. She is a well known face in the Film Festival circuits, be it as a jury or through her work as an actor. From the Tribeca Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, to the Marrakech International Film Festival or the Cannes Film Festival, she and her works have been spotted everywhere.

Apart from her on-screen presence she has been a strong advocate of prevention of tuberculosis in Iran and has also championed Environmental issues. Farahani also displayed her singing prowess by being part of different bands. She was a part of an Iranian band but since her exile from the country, she had teamed up with another exiled Iranian band since 2009. In 2022 she even performed a cover song called Baraye with Coldplay which was globally publicised and recognised as the protest anthem.

Post Alpha, on the work front, she is said to be starring in The Thing That Hurts by Arnaud Desplechin.

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